Dance of the Dandruff Fairies
by JokerCarnage5
Summary: Grossology S3E7. Little girls with dandruff are being kidnapped by the Scab Fairy. When Abby chases after the crazy villain, she gets a hard knock to the head and starts believing she's a little kid again. Can Abby's childlike fascination with the mythical Scab Fairy help save the captured girls and can the Grossologists get Abby back to normal before her birthday?
1. Prologue

**Dance of the Dandruff Fairies**

* * *

**Prologue:**

Seven year old Ellie couldn't sleep. She twisted underneath her bedsheets while clutching one of her dark brown locks, the dim cobalt light from her night lamp was the only thing illuminating her room.

She shed a tear as she thought back on the awful day she had had.

* * *

_During recess, the other kids had gathered around her and started pointing and making fun of her hair (or rather, was what in her hair)._

"_Your Hair is Flaky.  
Your Hair is Flaky.  
You'll be leaving with the Scab-Fairy."_

_All of them chanted over and over again. Some of them even ran up on her from behind and pulled in her hair, trying to impress their friends by getting some of her dandruff. She cried and screamed to be left alone while shielding her head._

* * *

Ellie gazed at the hairlock she was clutching. The small white flakes dotted the stream of otherwise flawless silky hair. "Stupid dandruff. Stupid jerks. Stupid fairies. There's no such thing anyway." She huffed as she turned over once again. "I hope Yu and I can be friends again."

* * *

_On her way back home, Ellie came across her friend Yu who appeared to be crying over something. "Yu, what's the matter?"_

"_This!" Yu screamed and held up some of her raven hair for Ellie to see. It was sprinkled with white flakes. "You gave me dandruff! I never want to speak to you again!" The Chinese girl shouted hysterically and pointed accusingly at a distraught Ellie._

* * *

Just as Ellie closed her eyes to sleep, a bright pink light illuminated the room, completely outshining her dim little night lamp. Immediately, Ellie rattled out of her bedsheets, getting up on her knees. The light was coming from outside her windows which then opened with a bang. The young girl had to squint and shield her eyes to be able to look towards the light source. The silhouette of a woman appeared in front of the pink light.

"Evening, little one." The silhouette greeted with a playful giggle.

"What are you?" Ellie asked.

The bright light dimmed just enough for the details of the intruding woman to be discernible for the young brunette's eyes. She was a young, beautiful woman in her mid-twenties with long raven hair, wearing a tight pink and purple costume that exposed her stomach. She was hovering in the hair on insect wings and the powerful light was emitting from a staff in her left hand.

"Well, I am the Scab Fairy." The deranged former pageant queen answered gracefully.

"You-you are?" Ellie gasped with astonishment. "Why are you here?"

"For you of course. Cause as the tale goes, all little girls blessed with flaky hair has to come with me to world of wonder." Scab Fairy explained whimsically, her red lips curved into a childlike smile.

"Ellie, what's going on in there?" A male voice came from behind the door. "Ellie? Ellie, I'm coming in." The door opened and her father stepped in. He gasped in horror when he saw his daughter in the crook of this fairy-like woman's arm.

The Scab Fairy swiftly turned around and flew out thru the window, laughing manically as she disappeared into night.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**And so the seventh part of my Season 3 series begins. This one will be very Abby-centred but Chester and Ty will be given some attention as well and as you can tell, Scab Fairy will be the primary antagonist with the gross-theme being dandruff. I think it will be a lot of fun.**

**Don't know how long it will take to make this one since school leaves me with so little free time but I'll try to find time to write. I'll also be trying to draw a descent title card for this fanfic since that's something I typically do for these Season 3 stories. Right now I'll be using this drawing I did of Scab Fairy for DeviantArt.**

**As always, I appreciate any feedback you can give me.**

_**See you around, Grossologists!**_


	2. Chapter 1

**Dance of the Dandruff Fairies**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Despite their oddities, the Archer family's attic looked just like any other. It was dark, dusty and cluttered with stuff never or nearly ever used. The darkness abrupt when the shutter opened and Ty Archer climbed into the room. He then turned around and gave his best friend a helping hand up.

"I don't think I've ever been to your parent's attic before." Andy stated, looking around the place. Ty turned on the lights, although the attic remained rather dim. "What are we looking for now again?" Andy asked.

"Um, a couple of glass cups with spiders painted on them and a cookie jar formed like a toilet." Ty replied while eyeing the attic's content.

Andy raised a brow. "A cookie jar _formed_ like a toilet?"

"Yeah, we bring it out for Abby's birthday every year. We usually fill it with chocolate balls or chocolate pudding or chocolate-chip cookies, any kind of chocolate treat, really."

Andy chuckled. "Your family throw some wild parties." He felt something tickle his nose right before he sneezed. *ACHOOO*

"Bless you." Ty said.

"It's all the dust in here. It makes-a-a-a-*ACHOOOO*

Andy sneezed so hard he stumbled backwards. His back collided with a stack of dinner plates with the coveted toilet-shaped cookie jar balancing atop. The stack of plates shacked for a few seconds but eventually stopped. The cookie jar thou fell off its perch.

Ty gasped and dived at the floor, catching the cookie jar at the last second. He sighed in relief before smiling up at his friend. "Good job Andy, you found the toilet jar."

Andy smiled back and gave a thumbs up.

At that moment, Ty saw something underneath a dusty old cabinet. He tilted his head a bit to see it better. "Hold this for me." Ty handed the jar to Andy and crawled over to the cabinet. He reached underneath it, grabbed what lied there before getting onto his feet.

It was a book, a children book to be precise. The cover was white with pink glitter and illustrations of fairies on it. The title read _TALES OF THE SCAB FAIRY_.

"What's that? A book?" Andy asked, leaning in closer.

"Yeah. It's one of Abby's old children books." A mischievous grin spread across Ty's face.

* * *

Downstairs, Abby was having some company of her own. She and Chester was watching boxing in the living room. Abby was definitely the more enthusiastic of the two, animatingly cheering on for her favourite boxers. "Wow, Jake the Jabber is amazing. Isn't he?"

"Yeah, he was really giving it to that guy." The blonde boy stated. Chester liked boxing _fine_. He never got that into sports but he didn't find it boring either. He was just happy someone wanted his company.

"Yeah, he was like this." Abby stood up and started throwing jabs like the boxer on TV. "And then he was like this." She threw a few more punches at the air.

Chester smiled as he looked at the happy boxing fan. _'I can barely believe this. I thought Abby would still be uncomfortable around me after all the Kid Rot-stuff but she actually seem relaxed and happy even when I'm here. Maybe she has actually forgiven me and we can be true friends.'_

The phantom image of Kid Rot appeared next to him. _"You're so naive, I almost feel sorry for you. Almost."_

Chester looked at him, even thou he knew he should just ignored the hallucinations of his former tormentor.

"_Seriously, do you really think that she's just magically forgotten all the rotten things we did or tried to do to her? Let's face it, the only reason she hangs out with your sorry ass is cause she pities you. You'd be stupid to think there's any other reason someone would put up with you."_

Chester lowered his head, depressed.

"Something wrong?" Abby asked.

Chester looked up at her. Her head was cocked to the side and one of her brows were raised. "Oh nothing. Everything's fine." He faked a smile.

Abby looked at the television for a second before turning back to the blonde. "You know, if you don't like boxing we can put on something else."

Chester got nervous. "No, no. Everything's fine. There's no reason to change anything for my sake."

The redhead stared at him for a moment before slumping back in the couch, pouting.

The mood in the room had noticeably soured and Chester started blaming himself. _'Damn it, damn it. Why can't I talk to people? No wonder no one wants to be with me. I always ruin everything.'_

The tension was broken when Abby's mother walked into the room. "You kids alright over here?"

"Yeah, we're fine." Abby answered, putting on a pleasant smile. Chester didn't say anything but he smiled and nodded to her question.

"Good. That reminds me, if you want to invite any of your friends from school I need to know if any of them have any allergies, also how many will come so I know how many chairs I should set." Petunia exclaimed.

Abby frowned and leaned even more into the sofa, crossing her arms. "I don't have any friends to invite."

"Really?" Petunia sounded surprised. "What about the baseball team?"

"We train, we play but we don't hang out." Abby retorted.

"What about the volleyball team?"

"I quit years ago. Didn't like the company much."

"What about that boy with the nickname? Um, LabRat?"

"LabRat has severe agoraphobia. He doesn't leave his lab-I mean room unless it's an emergency."

"True. LabRat doesn't even go to school with us." Chester added softly.

"Hmm…" Petunia clutched her chin in contemplation. "What about that other girl who talks to you on a daily basis? You know, Paige."

Abby's eyes dilated. She then rolled her eyes and scowled. "I would rather invite Lance Boil."

"Gosh, I didn't know you were so lonely at school." Petunia sounded genuinely concerned.

"I'm not." Abby sighed and straighten herself a little. "Most people at school is nice to me. They just don't feel like hanging out is all."

Petunia blinked before eyeing the boy on the couch. Chester stared back at her. "How about Chester?"

Chester turned to Abby, anticipation in his eyes. Abby smiled. "Well, he is-

"Look what I found!" Ty's voice exulted over his sister's shoulder as the spikey-haired teen jumped over the backrest and slammed down on the seat in-between Chester and Abby. Ty then started waving the book he found earlier at Abby's face. "Does this look familiar to you, Abby? Does it? Does it?"

"Yeah, yeah, I can see it." Abby exclaimed irritated before slapping the book out of his hand.

Andy waddled into the room. He was clutching the oddly shaped jar in his left arm and a couple of glass cups in his right. The poor boy had to perch his head in order to see where he was going. He cleared his throat to get some attention. "We found the spider cups and the toilet-shaped cookie jar that you wanted."

"Thank you, Andy. Can you be a dear and carry it to the kitchen table? If you like, you can reward yourself with one of the cupcakes on the counter." Petunia exclaimed.

Andy simply smiled and eagerly went to the kitchen.

Petunia sat down at the end of the couch, Chester scuffled to the side to make room for her. "What did you find, dear?" She asked her son.

Ty picked the book off the floor and handed it to his mother. "It's Abby's old children book."

"Emphasising on the word _children_." Abby scoffed sarcastically while rolling her eyes.

Petunia gasped ecstatically. "Oh, this used to be Abby's favourite book growing up."

Chester leaned in closer. "What is it?"

"Tales of the Scab Fairy. It's a collection of stories about the legendary Scab Fairy." Petunia explained. "We used to have the entire trilogy but Abby sold the other two."

"I used the money to buy a new baseball bat. No buyer's remorse there." Abby mused.

"Scab Fairy?" Chester blinked. "Wasn't she a supervillain?"

"Yeah but she based her persona on a local legend." Ty replied. "The Scab Fairy is a myth local only to Ringworm City."

"And when Abby was little she was obsessed with the Scab Fairy and learned everything about her." Petunia added.

"I barely remember any of it." Abby groaned in annoyance but the others seemed to ignore her.

"She waited up every night when she had a scab in hope to see her and she collected every Scab Fairy book and every Scab Fairy toy there was. Oh and she even went as the Scab Fairy on Halloween once." Petunia exclaimed.

"Would have liked to see that." Chester said.

"Actually, I think I have a picture of it in our old photo album."

At hearing that, Abby's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. "Mom, no!"

Before anyone knew what had happened, Petunia had left the sofa, gotten a photo album out of a nearby bookcase and opened it in front of Chester. The blonde boy blinked at the photo in front of him.

The photo was of a small, redheaded girl with pigtails, wearing a yellow and green stripped shirt and a matching miniskirt. "Yep, that's our Abby when she was only six years old." Petunia stated.

"Cute." Chester said, absentmindedly.

Abby gasped and folded her arms over her head, wishing that _death by embarrassment_ was a medical possibility.

"And here is Abby that year she dressed as the Scab Fairy for Halloween." The brunette gestured to another photo. Little Abby's costume was pink and scally. It even had similar dragonfly-like wings to Helena Globin's costume (non-functioning of course). She didn't have the same helm thou, instead little Abby sported a pink tiara above her forehead.

"It's not…made of actual scabs, right?" Chester asked in a disturbed tone.

"No, no. I made it out of a red t-shirt and some pink foam." Petunia replied. "You know, I think we have some photos of when Abby was a baby in here as well."

The expression of absolute horror on Abby's face was as if she'd died and woken up in hell. "Mom! No!" To Abby's everlasting gratitude, the Grossologists' GrossWatches started beeping.

"Why are all your watches going off at once?" Petunia asked.

"Um, it's nothing. Um, we need to go now." Ty exclaimed.

His mother blinked. "All of you?"

Andy peeked into the room. "Um, Mrs. Archer? You're all out of um, cookie dough. Yeah. We can go buy some more for you."

"That can't be true. I just bought a new package."

Andy blinked. "Um…wait a second." He went back into the kitchen. There was the sound of him chowing down something. He then came back with cookie dough smeared across his lips and an expression that screamed _food poisoning._ "You're definitely out of dough and we should leave now *BUUUUUUUUURP!*"

Mrs. Archer blinked puzzled while the three people behind her stared with their jaws agape at the chubby teenager.

* * *

The moment Andy rushed into the Gaglab, he threw himself at the nearest trash bin and hurled up all the raw cookie dough he'd eaten.

LabRat stared at the overweight Grossologist with a look of utter bewilderment. "What's up with you?"

Andy panted after throwing up so much. "Cookie dough."

"Couldn't even wait those twelve minutes to bake, huh?" LabRat scoffed sarcastically.

Andy stood up. "Hey, it was for a good cause so give me some creed."

"That's true." Ty stated as he along with Abby and Chester walked into the lab. "It was how we got away from mom. Although I'm pretty certain we could have found an excuse that required less indigestion."

Abby walked up to the young scientist, placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered. _"Thank you so much for calling when you did, LabRat. You saved me from a very cliché and very embarrassing crises." _She then stepped back.

LabRat blinked. _"What was going on up there?"_ He shook his head and decided to forget about it. "Alright, now we just have to wait for Naomi to get here and we can start."

"I'm here LabRat."

LabRat nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned around and saw the aforementioned girl, cradling Hermes to her bosom. "Darn it, Naomi! Are you trying to be a ninja or something?"

"Sorry, LabRat." Naomi excused before walking over to Ty, kissed his lips (which he returned). She then took a chair and sat down.

"Now when everyone's here, can you all take a seat so we can begin?" LabRat exclaimed. Andy took a chair next to Naomi while Abby and Chester opted to stand. Ty meanwhile simple leaned against a table. All now awaiting LabRat's mission briefing.

The young scientist pulled out a remote and pushed a button. A large screen lowered down from the ceiling and turned on. The screen showcased a newspaper article with the headline CHILDNAPPER STRIKES AGAIN.

"As you may have heard, there's been a string of kidnappings of young girls in the southern suburbs of Ringworm City. As of last night, five girls have been taken from their homes."

Naomi gasped. "That's horrible. Who would do such a thing?"

"Sadly, there's plenty of sick freaks in this city that would do just such things." Abby answered with a fierce scowl.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Chester asked.

"Until today, this was considered strictly police business however last night, a girl named Ellie was taken from her room and the eyewitness report her father filled out point's to one of our rogues being the culprit."

The Grossologists was looking at each other and LabRat could tell they were already trying to draw conclusions. Of course, they knew better than to interrupt him.

"On the first four crime scenes, scabs were found. However, DNA-tests showed that these scabs came from no less than thirteen different people, all with solid alibies and no connection to each other or the kidnapped girls. Therefor the scabs where labelled a dead end. However, Ellie's father saw the kidnapper and his description of the culprit matches that of Helena Globin." LabRat clicked on the remote and the screen switched to a couple of profile photos of Helena Globin, both in and out of her villain costume. "Also known as _the Scab Fairy_."

Abby's eyes dilated.

"Wow, speak of the devil. Or I guess _fairy_ in this case." Ty chided.

"Yeah, what are the odds that she would show up just as we were talking about her?" Andy teased.

"Can you guys lay off? The life of children may be at stake here." Abby barked at them.

Ty brushed off his sister's outrage. "But why would a loony pageant queen want to kidnap children?"

"_That_ we do not know yet." LabRat shrugged. "Right now, The Detective is waiting for you at Ellie's house. He thinks that the bureau of Grossology might have a better chance at solving this case due to our previous experiences with the Scab Fairy and because we may see clues where ordinary law-enforcers would not." He raised his voice a bit. "As of right now, the missing girls are Grossologist business. We need to find them and catch the Scab Fairy as soon as possible."

* * *

_15 minutes later, at Ellie's house. _

While Chester, Naomi and Andy were busy searching Ellie's room for clues, Ty and Abby were talking to the girl's father out in the corridor along with Teddy Burklow (The Detective).

"Can you explain to us what happened here last night? In detail, please." Abby asked.

"I already told the cops everything." The father exclaimed, annoyed. His eyes seem to glare daggers at the Grossologists.

"Yes, but I would want to hear it from you directly. We might pick up on something the police didn't?" Abby responded.

The middle-aged man sighed. "Like I told the police, I'd done my business in the bathroom so I headed to bed when I saw a pink light coming from the slit atop Ellie's bedroom's door." He pointed at the top of the doorframe. "Then I heard a female voice I've never heard before emitting from Ellie's room. I knocked and called on her. When she didn't answer I walked in and saw her in the arms of this pink, flying woman with mosquito-wings."

Ty tapped his wrist-mounted GrossWatch which then projected a holographic 3D image of the Scab Fairy, the way she looked when the Grossologists first encountered her. "Is this the person you saw?"

"Yes, that's definitely her. Well, the face and the wings are the same and she definitely had that staff but her costume was a little different." Ellie's father explained.

"How different?" Abby asked.

"She didn't have those boots and her cleavage was…" The middle-age man blushed a bit in embarrassment. "Much deeper."

Andy suddenly popped out of the room. "Deeper? How much deeper?"

Abby immediately slapped him over the head and he went away.

Ellie's father also seemed rather annoyed with Andy's inappropriate question, or maybe he was just annoyed with the Grossolosgists in general. He turned to the stoic detective. "Officer? Why is teenagers handling my daughter's case? Is this no longer a concern for the police? Aren't you taking this seriously anymore?"

"I can assure you, everyone's primary concern right now is bringing your daughter home, as well as the other missing girls. However, we unanimously decided that the Grossologists would be the ones best suited to solve this case. They got experience with these sort of things."

"But they're just teenagers…"

As the father and The Detective kept arguing with each other, Ty whispered to his sister. _"Talk about disrespectful. He's badmouthing us like we're not even here."_

Abby frowned. _"He's a worried father, you ass-hat. Be a bit more thoughtful."_

Meanwhile, Chester was examining Ellie's bed when he found something. A long strand of hair. What more, there was white flakes on it. Chester pouted in contemplation. He then slowly stroked his hand across the bedsheets. Eyeing his hand, he saw even more of the white flakes. Chester scanned the hair strand with his GrossWatch before calling LabRat on the same advice.

The hologram of the young scientist popped out of the watch. "S'up?"

"LabRat, I just scanned a hair sample. It got some kind of pollen on it. Can you analyse it?"

"Already have and it's not pollen mister I-spend-all-day-in-the-garden. It's dandruff." LabRat mischievously chided his fellow Grossologist.

The hologram then switched to a slideshow of images that illustrated LabRat explanation. "Dandruff is really just clusters of skin cells that loosened from the scalp. Sometimes it's caused by cells that grow faster than usual but this seems to be a case of seborrhoea. Seborrhoea is caused by a certain kind of yeast that lives naturally on our skin and produces a sort of fatty acid. When the yeast overgrows, the acid can tear thru the upper layer of skin, causing it to flake."

A lightbulb lit up in Chester's head. "Guys, I found something!" Andy and Naomi turned to him and the Archer siblings came rushing into the room, followed by The Detective and Ellie's father.

"What is it, Chester?" Abby asked.

"I found dandruff!" Chester proclaimed like it was the most amazing thing ever.

The others looked at him as if he'd grown an extra head. Ty crossed his arms. "So? Plenty of people have dandruff."

"If it's to any help, Ellie has had dandruff for a couple of weeks now." Ellie's father stated. "She tried to wash it out but no matter what shampoo she used it always came back."

"That's probably cause dandruff got nothing to do with hair. It's all skin cells from the scalp." Ty stated.

"Thanks for the dermatology lesson but what does it have to do with anything?" The grown man was getting more and more irritated.

"Um, well…" Chester's voice to falter. The cynical reactions from everyone caused him doubt his idea. "I thought…maybe…maybe Ellie was targeted because of her dandruff." He turned to the LabRat hologram on his wristwatch. "Um, LabRat? Can you somehow check if any of the other missing girls had dandruff?"

"Sure I can but this is a pretty far longshot. Give me a minute." LabRat replied before the hologram avatar shutdown.

"That's a good idea, Chester." Abby said.

Chester's back stiffen, he blushed and lowered his chin. He was still not used to compliments, especially when they came from his crush.

Ty rolled his eyes. "Don't compliment him until we know for sure, kiss-ass."

Abby frowned but didn't say anything. _'Chester might be onto something. I remember dandruff being mentioned in some Scab Fairy myth but I just can't remember why. What was it?'_

The hologram of LabRat popped up over Chester's wrist again. "Guys, I can't believe I'm saying this but there might be a slight possibility that Chester was right. Dandruff was found at all the other crime scenes and in two cases, it was reported by the local school nurse."

Most people in the room was taken aback but Chester beamed with joy over his contribution.

"Huh, so the dandruff might actually be the reason why the girls were kidnapped. Go figure." Ty exclaimed, sounding incredulous.

Abby grabbed Chester's wrist and talked to the hologram. "LabRat, is there a way for you to check if any other children in the area got dandruff right now?"

"Already thought of that." LabRat replied. "According to the student health files, one other girl in that neighbourhood has dandruff right now. Yu Ling."

* * *

The Detective drove his car, heading toward the Ling residents. The house should only be a few blocks away, well within walking distance but he'd learned people react better to him if they saw his car approaching first, it gave them a few minutes to prepare themselves. Also he didn't want to waste the Grossologists' time.

"Tell me again what we're going to do at this Ling family?" Abby asked from the backseat.

"Since we suspect their daughter to be the Scab Fairy's next target we'll be offering the entire family police protection and with her parents' permission, you Grossologists will examine Yu to see if her dandruff matches that found from the others."

Besides Abby, the only other Grossologist in the car was Chester since Ty, Naomi and Andy had stayed behind at Ellie's to keep investigating. "M-maybe Ty would have been better for this mission. I-I don't do social calls ve-very well." The blonde boy stuttered.

Abby sighed and leaned back in her seat. "Might be true but since you, Naomi and Andy are still rookies, the rules says either I or Ty always have to be with you when we're on a mission and don't expect Naomi or Andy to let go of Ty's hand any time soon. So we're stuck with each other."

Abby had said it rather playfully but it still made Chester uncomfortable. _'Stuck with each other?' _Did Abby feel like he burdened her somehow? Had he been a bad teammate? Was his initial fear true, did he make her uncomfortable? _'I wouldn't really want to be teamed-up with me either.' _Chester thought distressingly and hung his head.

Thru the rear-view mirror, The Detective noticed Chester's depressed state and thought some light conversing would lighten the mood. Certainly couldn't hurt, right? "Abby, your birthday's coming up soon, isn't it?"

"You know the date of my birthday?" Abby ask surprised.

"Well, I've known you and your brother for years now. I know quite a lot about you, kids. You may not have noticed but you two talk to me an awful lot and not just about work."

Abby smiled. "Only because you're so easy to talk to."

The Detective chuckled, which wasn't something Abby heard very often. "If you say so. Feel free to tell me about anything. Same goes for you too, Chester."

The blonde boy peaked up. He did not expect the law enforcer to start talking to him.

"I'm a friend of your grandpa, you know so feel free to talk to me whenever you want."

"Huh." Chester nodded, understandingly. He was gracious (and a little surprised) that the gruff looking detective was so considerate.

"So, anything planned for your birthday?" The Detective asked.

"Not much. Seventeen is just the steppingstone to sweet eighteen." Abby replied before turning to Chester. "How about you, Chester? What do you do for your birthdays?"

"Um, nothing special." Chester smiled sadly. "Since my grandparents are the only relatives I got, they usually just treat me to dinner at some restaurant or something. It's quite nice."

A sudden bang of guilt hit Abby in the gut. Here she was, complaining over her parents fussing over giving her a good birthday when Chester didn't even have parents or siblings (or friends for that matter). What would something like a birthday even mean to someone like him? After scolding herself for a minute or so, she plastered on a smile. "Would you want to come over for my birthday?"

Chester blinked, puzzled. "Wasn't that just for your family?"

"Yeah but I don't think anyone would mind. Besides, it would be fun for me as well." She grinned. "You would be saving me from boredom."

Chester smiled and was about to say something when Kid Rot showed up in the middle seat between the two. _"Have you already forgotten what we just talked about?" _The hallucination mused. _"Abby's only playing nice cause she pities you. As if she would want to spend her special day with you of all people."_

Chester lowered his head in sadness. "Thanks Abby but I think it would just be awkward. So no thanks."

Abby blinked. She then turned to look absentmindedly out the window, resting her chin upon her palm and pout. _'No wonder I don't have many friends, I can't even cheer up the one I have.'_

Kid Rot smirked in satisfaction. _"Good. By the way, why is neither of you sitting in the front seat? Did you hope to get in some snuggle time during workhours, you freaking perv?"_

They arrived at the Ling residence and The Detective parked his car at the driveway. "Alright, you can leave the talking to me, if any of them ask anything just let-

"LOOK!" Abby shouted as she thrusted herself forward and pointed at the sky.

Alarmed, The Detective looked up and to his horror saw the scab clad Helena Globin squeeze herself out of a window on the second floor, holding a little unconscious girl in her arms.

"It's the Scab Fairy." The Detective exclaimed.

"And she got a girl." Chester exclaimed.

Abby rushed out of the car and aimed her goopshooter at the kidnapper. The moment she fired was also the moment the Scab Fairy saw her. She flew off the building and the green slime hit the side of the wall. The Scab Fairy didn't even look back as she speeded away thru the sky.

"Abby, get back here!" The Detective hollered. Abby quickly got back into the car and The Detective immediately hit the gas pedal, chasing after the flying criminal. The car managed to keep a steady pace with the Scab Fairy, driving across an empty country road but the flying woman covered a lot of ground faster.

Abby tapped the Gross-Com in her left ear. "Ty, we're pursuing the Scab Fairy right now. She has Yu."

"_You serious?" _Her brother asked perplexed thru the communication device.

"Yes, I'm serious! Take the GRS-2 and intercept at our coordinates. You should be able to see her rather easily from the air." Abby ordered.

Meanwhile, the Scab Fairy glanced down at the car that followed her below. She hissed like a wild animal. "Damn Goblins. Trying to ruin my plans once again. I have to get them off my tail." Nothing had gone according to her plan. After that brunette's father saw her last night, she realized the town's lawmen and sneaky goblins would soon be after her so she decided to collect Yu earlier rather than wait till nightfall. Apparently, she wasn't early enough.

The chase continued outside city limits as The Detective drove onto a country road although he started to realize if he kept this going he'd lose sight of the scab-clad kidnapper. "Do you kids got your seatbelts on?"

"Um, no." Abby replied, hesitantly.

"Then put them on." He demanded before swirling the steering wheel. The car drove off the road and cut right thru the surrounding field of uncut grass.

Scab Fairy crossed the treeline of Ringworm Woods, flying a top the seemingly never ending sea of treetops. She smirked, knowing her pursuers wouldn't be able to chase her over such arboraceous terrain.

The Detective still tried thou. He drove his car as far up and as far into the forest as the trees allowed him to but after only a few meters the forest got too dense for his vehicle to get thru. The middle aged man sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry. I can't get-

Before he could finish his sentence or even look over his shoulder he heard the sound of Abby and Chester opening their doors. Looking ahead, The Detective could see the two Grossologists running like a pair of predators thru the forest.

"Hey, wait!" He called out as he got out of the car and ran after them but he was pathetically slow in comparison. Soon, the teenagers disappeared from sight and he was clutching his knees from exhaustion. "I'm getting too old for these kinds of things."

* * *

The Scab Fairy laughed to herself. "If modern automobiles can't even drive thru a forest, they're not even better than horses and saddles."

She suddenly heard the sound of jet-engines coming towards her. She turned around and saw the GRS-2 coming towards her. She shrieked, "DRAAAAGOOOOON!"

A huge claw ejected from underneath the GRS-2's hood and almost managed to grab the Scab Fairy but she managed to dodge it at the last second. She then dived, disappearing under the foliage of the forest below.

"Damn, I botched it." Ty swore from his position in the GRS-2's pilot seat.

"I say. Why didn't you blast her with the goop-cannon?" Andy asked from the seat next to him.

"Cause if we shot Helena out of the sky we would probably end up hurting Yu as well." Ty explained. "All we can do now is keep circling the area and keep our eyes open for the Scab Fairy to resurface."

* * *

Meanwhile, below the tree crowns…

"First the goblins, now a metal dragon. Everyone is after my scabby heels today!" The Scab Fairy bemoaned to herself. "Aw well, it should be fine. That iron monstrosity cannot reach me thru the canopies, _probably_ and as long as I keep on moving there's no way they can catch up to me on the ground."

Suddenly, Abby leaped down from one of the tree tops and landed on the Scab Fairy's back. The deranged pageant queen immediately lost altitude and nearly crashed against a tree but managed to rectify her body just in time, stabilizing herself. "Get off me, she-goblin!" She hissed aggressively.

Abby locked her legs around her opponent's hips and one arm around her neck. "Not. Until. You. Hand me. That child!" She reached for Yu but Scab Fairy spun around and threw the Grossologist off her.

Abby was rapidly approaching the ground when she tapped a button on her belt. Her slimesuit started inflating until she looked like a massive beach ball and she bounced across the forest floor, saving her from a potentially damaging crash.

The Scab Fairy hyperventilated and landed on a nearby branch to gather her composure. That female goblin had given her quite the fright. "Oh, that was close. Too close. That nasty goblin almost got my little helper. But as long as I'm being cautious from now on, nothing can go wrong."

As she was speaking, Chester ghosted thru the tree trunk and quietly sneaked up on. He reached out and quick as a purse snatcher, seized the little girl from the mad woman's arms.

"Hey! What the-

Was all the Scab Fairy got out before Chester kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying off the branch. Predictable, Scab Fairy's wings started buzzing and she _actually_ flew before hitting the ground. She looked up at the branch she'd fallen from but there was no goblin to be seen.

* * *

Chester ran as fast as his legs could carry him with the unconscious girl in his arms. He had seen his teammate's fall and knew she was okay so now all his focus was on Yu. He jumped behind a big log and crouched down. He needed to catch his breath but also look over the girl's condition. Yu was sleeping deeply in his arms. The only thing that moved was her chest as it dilated and deflated with each breath. Chester, very carefully patted her cheek a few times. "Hey, wake up. Can you hear me? Wake up, girly. Eh, what was her name again? Um, Yu Ling. Wake up, Yu!"

Yu yawned and stirred a little but didn't wake up.

Chester sighed. "She doesn't seem harmed, just sedated. I'll have LabRat look her over once I'm out of here."

Then he heard the buzzing of wings coming towards him. In the next second, the Scab Fairy zoomed over his head. She turned around and locked eyes with him. "Should have kept running, goblin!" She thrusted the Scab-sceptre and hit Chester's feet with a ray of pink light. Scabs started forming on Chester's boots and the ground underneath them. The scabs grew into each other, glued together, affixing Chester's feet to the ground. The coat of hardening scabs kept growing, covering his legs and body.

Chester did not know if this would suffocate him or if it would even transfer to Yu so he held her up, hoping it would keep her safe but that turned out to be a big mistake. The Scab Fairy swooped down and grabbed the little girl right out of his hands. Chester's fingers uselessly grasped in the empty air. He snarled in frustration. The Scab Fairy then kept firing her Scab-sceptre at the Grossologist until he was completely encapsulated in the hard crust of so many scabs. Only his face was still visible.

The Scab Fairy laughed manically. "You were a most bothersome little goblin but there was no way I was gonna let you keep my little treasure." She gently stroked Yu's hair. "This girl and all the others are very precious to me. In time she may even come to see me as her fairy godmother."

Chester was gritting his teeth in absolute fury. "Those children have parents, you bastard!" He remembered his mother. Her back was turned to him, displaying hair of the same colour as his but longer and smother. She slightly turned to him and mouthed something. "Separating a child from their parents is the worst thing you can do to them!"

Chester seemingly exploded in a burst of dark energy, completely obliterating his scabby prison but it didn't stop there. The rot spread out, decomposing all the surrounding vegetation.

The Scab Fairy staggered back in fear as she saw the trees around her moult and shed their leaves. Then her fear turned to gleeful curiosity. "Well, isn't this interesting? Are you a demon? That would explain your affinity for death and destruction."

"No, no, no. This isn't supposed to happen!" Chester lamented as he clutched his temples and fell onto his knees. His forehead was sweating cold and his breathing became heavy as the decay kept spreading all around him.

"Awe, well. I'm afraid I can't stay any longer. I'm a very busy fairy and a being of youth and beauty such as me can't keep company with a monster like you." The Scab Fairy mused before flying off, taking Yu with her.

"Please, stop rotting." No matter how hard he tried to remember what Abby had told him about inner calm he was overwhelmed by Kid Rot's taunting voice. _"Yes, yes! Let it rot! Rot this forest. Rot that witch. Rot this entire world. Who has ever cared about you anyway?"_

"Chester!" At that moment, Abby rushed onto the scene. Seeing the destruction around her, she put on a gasmask before heading towards his cowering teammate (she knew the hazards of inhaling mould).

"Stay away! You'll rot!" Chester shouted in worry.

"No, I won't." Abby said, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder as she crouched down next to him. "Remember, our suits are non-biodegradable. Please, calm down."

"Yu." Chester panted, his body shaking.

"Huh?" Abby tilted her head, confused.

"She took her. Took her that way!" He pointed in the direction where Scab Fairy had taken off to.

Abby rose up. "Okay, wait a second." _'Even in the midst of a mental breakdown, he stays focused on the mission. Chester, I'm proud of you.' _Abby thought as she tapped her Gross-Com. "Ty, Chester saved Yu but Scab Fairy stole her again. She's heading northwest of my position right now."

"_Can't you chase after her?" _Her brother asked over the Gross-Com.

"I can't leave Chester behind. His powers are going crazy."

"Don't bother with me. Go after her!" Chester vented but was ignored.

"_I understand…_

* * *

"You can leave it all to me, sis." Ty said before turning to the Grossologist sitting next to him. "Andy, take over the controls. Once I disappear out of sight stay close by following my radio frequency. You know how to the GPS works right?" He ordered as he got out of the pilot seat and headed towards the exit.

"Wait, what? What are you gonna do?" Andy asked bewildered.

Ty opened the ship's hatchet, letting the screaming wind into its hull. He shot his teammates a sly smile. "I'm going to ask our local fairy to dance."

Ty jumped out of the ship and let himself fall several feet before the wings in his jetpack ejected and their afterburners propelled him thru the air. He scoured the forest like a hawk after signs of the Scab Fairy, keeping his sister's instructions in mind. "I may not be able to see you with my naked eye but with thermal vision…" Ty tapped a small button on his grossgoggles, setting them to heat vision-mode. After a few seconds, he saw a human-sized heat source speeding thru the forest down below. It wasn't only Helena Globulin's body that radiated heat but also the machine that powered her wings as well as the smaller body of Yu.

"I see one hot body at twelve o'clock…oh, and Scab Fairy's heat signature." Ty smirked.

"_Be careful Ty. Your girlfriend's listening." _Naomi joked over the Gross-Com. Ty dived and disappeared below the treetops.

* * *

The Scab Fairy smirked to herself as she flew thru the forest. She'd outfoxed both the goblin, the demon and the metal dragon. Now there was nothing stopping her from reaching her hideout.

Suddenly, she saw an orange flash at the corner of her eye. She gazed to her side and saw a flying goblin in an orange suit that smiled and waved at her. "You have to give that child back, Helena and all the others you've taken." Ty exclaimed.

"I'm giving you nothing, goblin!" Scab Fairy screeched at him and made a sharp turn around some trees.

Ty had to quickly calibrate his wings in order to keep up with her while not getting smashed against the trees in the process. He knew he had to be careful. In terms of speed, his jetpack outclassed her completely but to manoeuvre in this dense forest, the Scab Fairy's insect-like wings had the advantage. He flew up next to her once again. "Hey, why you calling me a goblin?"

"That's what you and your ilk are, aren't you? You're always ruining my plans and spreading your disgusting slime everywhere. What else would those G's on your chests stand for?"

"Well, we're not goblins but you're right about the slime thing." Ty mused as he equipped his left arm with a goopshooter. He then aimed it at a space in-between two trees ahead of them. He held in the trigger for five seconds before firing a huge glob of slime which got stuck in-between the two trees and dribbled down till it formed a membrane between the stems.

The Scab Fairy tried to steer out of the way but reacted too late to the up-coming trap. She crashed right into the hanging goo, getting stuck like a fly in a spider's web. The demented woman snarled and grunted as she tried to struggle free but that only got her more stuck. "What kind of trickery is this?"

"The best kind. I call it my _trapping-the-crazy-broad-in-mid-air-so-I-can-safeley-save-the-child-trick._" Ty swopped down and swiped Yu from the Scab Fairy's clutches. "I'm still working on the name." He said as he landed safely on the ground and gave the little girl a look over. She seemed fine, he judged.

When he turned around, his adolescent mind couldn't help but stare at the Scab Fairy. Ellie's father wasn't kidding when he said her cleavage was deep, going all the way down to her navel and exposing half of both breasts. "Yeesh, Helena. Cleavage much? I mean, I understand that with your choice of fabric you wouldn't want to wear too much of it but this is a little inappropriate, don't you think?"

"You're blinded by my bosom. Now, be blinded by my magic!" The hand holding her scab-sceptre was still moveable enough for her to bend in Ty's direction. The odd device fired a pink ray of light, hitting Ty right in the face.

"Yikes, that hurt my eyes!" Ty used his one arm to rub his eyes underneath the grossgoggles while holding onto the girl with his other arm. When he opened them, the light from the sun was almost unbearable. "Wha-what did you do to me?"

"I simple added a few modified skin cells or photoreceptor cells as you might call 'em to your retinas, allowing them to reflect even more light than usual." The Scab Fairy gleefully explained. "Do not worry goblin, your sight should be back to normal soon enough but by then…"

"By then what?" Ty snarled as he kept rubbing his eyes with his sleeve. When he opened them, the sunlight still overwhelmed his vision but after about half a minute of blinking and crying, forms and shadows started to become clearer to him until his sight was fully restored. To his surprise and disappointment, the Scab Fairy was gone. Only the tattered remnants of the slimy net remained.

Ty sighed before tapping his gross-com. "Hey, everyone! I saved Yu but Tinker Dumb got away. I can't say where she went."

* * *

"That's great, Ty!" Abby practically cheered when she heard that over her gross-com. She crouched down next to Chester who was still kneeling and clutching his head in mental duress. "Chester, did you hear that? Ty saved Yu. Everything is fine. Now just remember those calmness exercises I thought you. Do not fight your negative emotions, just accept them."

Chester remembered something his grandfather told him.

* * *

_Flashback._

"_I'm sorry, Chester but you have to accept she is not coming back or else you'll never be able to move forward." Thomas Ferris said as he patted young Chester's shoulder._

* * *

"_I'f only I'd listened to him in the first place." _Chester thought.

"Take a deep breath and think of something you're grateful for." Abby continued.

"Grandpa. My grandpa and my garden." Chester vented as he tried to calm his breathing.

At that moment, The Detective ran into the clearing. "Kids, I've been looking for you everywhere." He looked at all the damaged vegetation. "What happened here?"

"Detective, stay back! It's dangerous here!" Abby shouted at him.

"Abby." Chester exclaimed softly. "It's okay. I think-I think I'm fine now." The shy boy smiled reassuringly to her. Abby removed her gasmask and smiled back at him.

"Hey, Abby!" The redhead looked up and saw her jetpack flying brother landing onto a rotten tree branch. The little Chinese girl was tucked inside his arm. Ty cupped his mouth and called to her. "Is everything alright down there?"

"Yes! Chester got everything under control!" She called back to him.

"Cool! We decided to-

"Why don't you use your Gross-Com instead of shouting your throat off?" Abby interrupted him.

Ty sighed in annoyance but tapped his earpiece anyway. "Hey, do you hear me better now, sis?"

"_Yes, I do."_ It sound like she was teasing him.

"Good. Listen, because of Chester's little power-outage this area is now clear enough for the GRS-2 to land in so we're all convening here." Ty explained.

"Alright but you better come down from there. You know you shouldn't climb in old trees." Abby ordered, sounding almost like a stressed-out mother.

Ty rolled his eyes. "Jeez. Stop being such a worry wort. I'm not some kid anymore." He jumped off the branch, breaking it in the process and flew down to the ground.

"Good job on rescuing that child, kido." The Detective commended him.

"Is she alright?" Abby asked as she started walking towards him. At that moment, Abby gasped as she saw the branch Ty had been standing on completely break off from the tree and tumble towards her brother.

"Yeah, she seems fine. Heavily sedated thou." Ty said as he looked over the sleeping toddler.

"Look out!" Abby threw herself at Ty, pushing him backwards. The falling tree branch broke in two upon colliding with Abby's cranium. The young woman felt her entire body go numb before blacking out.

* * *

_Sometime Later…_

Abby slowly opened her eyes. Her eyesight was blurry and she felt dizzy. She recognized she was currently lying in a white bed inside some sort of blue room. She saw a blond boy, dressed in black crying while an older man seemingly consoling him. "It was my fault." She heard the blonde boy sniffle. She felt sorry for him.

Ty's face suddenly popped into view. "Hey, she's awake!"

Everyone in the room, The Detective and all the Grossologists peaked up at that. They all gathered around her bed. Abby felt a bit overwhelmed by the attention and tried to tuck herself further into the bed.

"We were so worried about you?" A magenta dressed girl exclaimed.

"Are you feeling well?" Ty asked concerned.

"I think so." Abby replied and tried to sit up. Moaning in pain, she rubbed the back of her head. "My head hurts a lot thou."

Ty lowered his head in shame. "I'm sorry, it's my fault. If I hadn't stood underneath that rotten tree, you wouldn't have had to save me from that falling log."

"No, it was my fault for rotting the tree in the first place." The black clad boy cried out. His cheeks seemed soaked from tears. "I'm sorry, Abby. I did something awful…again."

"It's okay, I forgive both of you." Abby said. "Ty, can I ask you a couple of questions?"

"Sure, anything."

Abby removed her covers. "Why are my legs so long and why am I dressed in this yellow suit? Also, where am I and who are all these people?" She gestured to the other Grossologists who couldn't do anything but stare at her in disbelief.

Abby had lost her memories.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**I want to apologize for how long this chapter took to make. The delay is partly due to the length of this chapter but mostly because I spent most of these past five months on school work and haven't had time for hobbies. The reason why this chapter is so long is because I wanted to get to Abby's memory loss by the end of it so I wouldn't have to spend several chapters building up to the very premise of the story.**

**Scab Fairy is a fun character to write for. In my version she is even madder than she was in the show. She doesn't even remember she used to be a scientist anymore and believes she actually lives in fairy tale setting. I will explain this development more in the in a future chapter but right now it's just fun.**

**Another character I really liked writing in this chapter was The Detective. He has to be the most underrated character in the entire series. I never hear any fans mentioning him or any fanart of him even thou he's such a likable guy. Gruff and stoic on the outside but a real softy underneath.**

**Yu Ling's name is an homage to _Lee Ping_, the main chararacter in _Detentionaire._**

**I actually considered excluding Naomi from this story since I have no plans for her further on but I included her anyway just in case.**

**Hope enjoyed this chapter and I'll hope the next won't take too long make. As usual I'll appreciate any feedback you can give me.**

_**Until we meet again, Grossologists.**_


	3. Chapter 2

**Dance of the Dandruff Fairies**

* * *

**Chapter 2:**

"You should have heard her. She was like a completely different person." Ty explained to LabRat, Chester and Andy. The four boys were in the Gaglab while the two girls where in the dressing room. "I'm telling you, the Scab Fairy is crazier than ever and that's saying a lot."

"That's sadly to be expected." LabRat rolled his chair over to the closest big screen computer. He then brought up some reports accompanied with pictures of Helena Globin on screen. "After Helena Globin was arrested the first time, she was sent to Splatticus for treatment. Sadly, her dementia only worsened. According to her latest psychology report, she had completely stopped identifying as Helena Globin. Now she completely believing she is the real Scab Fairy, living in what she perceived as a fantasy realm."

"Like the most extreme cosplayer ever." Andy said in a profound tone.

"Um, yeah. On the up-side, The Detective just called me. He reported that Yu is awake and has made a full recovery."

For the first time in a while, Chester's lips curved into a smile. "Really? That's great."

"Yeah. According to the doctors, Yu was knocked out by some kind of sedative gas but there doesn't seem to be any noticeable side-effects." LabRat stated.

"That still leaves the question, why is Scab Fairy kidnapping these children?" Ty asked. The boys pondered in silence for a moment. Ty then came up with a possibility but it was so disturbing he hesitated to even say it. "You don't think she's gonna experiment on them, right? Cause if she want to study scabs there's only one way to do it with those girls…" He let the theory hang in the air, not wanting to fill out the blanks.

"I don't think so." Chester spoke up carefully. "Cause if that's the case, why only take those with dandruff."

"Good point." Andy said.

"Regardless, we need a way to find them." LabRat exclaimed. "Also, we need to find a way to deal with Abby…"

The boys then heard a *swoosh* sound behind them as the door to the dressing room opened up and Abby and Naomi walked into the lab. The former now wore her usual attire.

"Abby's back in her usual clothes, guys." Naomi announced.

Ty leaned closer to LabRat and whispered. _"Why did you want her to redress again?"_

"_Cause I didn't want her to mess with the belt or anything else installed in the suit."_

"Hey Ty, guess what. I'm wearing a bra, just like mom now." Abby exclaimed. "They're supporting my, um. What did you call them again?" She looked at Naomi, while absentmindedly cupping her unmentionables.

"Um, knockers." Naomi blinked.

"Exactly. They're kind of heavy and feel really weird and really good when I touch them." Abby explained like a child who'd just discovered a new toy while kneading and squeezing her breasts, making little o-sounds.

Ty stared wide eyed at his sister as she unintentionally pleasured herself. He then looked over at the guys next to him. LabRat wore an expression that could only be described as awkward while Chester looked away in shame and of course, Andy was biting his lower lip as his excited eyes ogled the moaning girl. Ty sighed and walked over to his sister. He slapped her hands. "No! Don't do so, Abby. That's very inappropriate in public." Abby blinked, confused. Ty then lead her to a chair and sat her down. "Now, Abby how old do you think you are?"

"Um…" Abby blinked. "Ten. No, eight. Uh, Seven?"

"You can't remember?" Ty asked.

"No. How weird." Abby said. Her dilated eyes were filled with confusion, like a child lost at a supermarket. "Why can't I remember?"

"Because of me. I'm so sorry, Abby." Chester lamented.

"You had an accident, Abby and got a nasty knock to the head." Ty explained. "You actually turn seventeen in less than three days."

"My birthday's coming up? Will there be a party?" Abby spoke up cheerfully.

Andy chuckled. "I like this new Abby. She's both more cheerful and has a way of making me feel less self-conscious for ogling her."

"Well, maybe you should feel self-counscious!" Naomi shushed him.

"So, I'm a grown-up now? Is that why I look like a babysitter?"

"Well, you're nearly a grown-up. More importantly, you are a Grossologist." Ty stated.

"What's a Grossologist?" Abby asked puzzled.

"It means you're working for the bureau of Grossology." LabRat spoke up. "We fight crimes too gross or too scientific for the police."

"So I'm like a secret agent, just one that deal with bugs and slime and such?" Abby clarified.

"Yep." LabRat nodded.

Abby was quiet for a moment, wheels turning in her head. "That's…Awesome! Sounds perfect for me." She then turned to her brother. "So, who are these people? Are they also Grossologists?"

"They're our teammates, Abby. You can trust them." Ty said before gesturing to LabRat. "The cool guy over there is LabRat. He's our engineer and forensic investigator. He creates all the gizmos we use on our missions."

LabRat gave her a sly grin.

"Do we all have nicknames?" Abby asked in an excited tone.

"No, LabRat only has it cause he's embarrassed of his real name." Ty replied, prompting a disgruntle mutter from aforementioned Grossologist.

"Too bad, I wanted to be The Redback Spider." Abby exclaimed proudly. "That's a spider from Australia." She added the last part like she wanted to get a pat on the back for knowing.

"Yes, yes it is." Ty said dryly before gesturing to Andy. "This is Andy, our field mechanic. Talk to him as much as you want but don't touch him as he's a bit of a pervert."

"Hey!" Andy protested.

Ty then walked up to Naomi, placing a hand on her shoulder. "And this pretty little thing is Naomi Collins."

Naomi smiled and waved at her. "Hey, Abby."

Abby pouted and turned away from her with a huff. "I don't like her! She's prettier than me."

Ty and Naomi blinked baffled. "Oo-kay." Ty said before gesturing to the black-clad Grossologist. "And the guy who can't stop apologizing is Chester."

"Hey, Abby." Chester stepped closer to her. "So you really don't remember me?"

"No." She shook her head.

Chester clutched his chin in contemplation. "Does the name Kid Rot mean anything to you?"

Abby shook her head again.

A small smile appeared on Chester's face. _'If she doesn't remember then maybe we can finally be true friends without Abby feeling any pity or discomfort.'_

'_That's right.' _Kid Rot appeared next to him. _'Take advantage of her condition. That's what I would do.'_

Chester's smile immediately faded and he turned away from her, head lowered in shame.

Abby raised a confused brow and leaned in on the boy, almost like she was trying to get a better look at him. This Chester person was so strange to her. He acted really guilty over something he'd done to her even thou she's already forgiven him and for some reason he smiled when she couldn't remember someone named Kid Rot. He also smelled really bad, almost like spoiled meat or that weird cheese her dad usually put on crackers. "Chester, if you're still feeling guilty, it's alright. I don't know what you did to turn me seventeen but I like it. Now I can have like ten birthdays to make up for the ones I missed."

Ty face-palmed. "That is not what happened! It's not like you time travelled. You've just forgotten everything."

Abby's lower lip shot out in a pout, she crossed her arms and slumped back in the chair. "Mucking shell."

LabRat raised an eyebrow. "Mucking?"

"Right, Mucking. Almost forgot about that." Ty scratched the back of his head. "Mucky or mucking was a "curse word" our dad taught us after we overheard him say Fu-

"Ty!" Naomi cried out and quickly covered Abby's ears. "Not in front of the kid."

Suddenly, one of the screens lit up and The Director greeted them as he typically did. "Grossologists! Why haven't you been locating the missing children?"

"We're doing our best, sir." Ty stated.

"You better hurry!" The Director started whining. "The parents of those missing kids and an entire neighbourhood-watch is breathing down my neck. Unless I give them a response soon this entire thing will turn into a PR nightmare."

Abby yawned. Listening to the big-headed man on TV was boring. Since everyone's attention was on The Director instead of her, she decided to slink away and explore the lab.

She walked around, eyeing all the various beakers, test tubes and chemical bottles in the glass cabinets. "Wow. My little chemistry set at home got nothing on this."

Abby then came across a microscope. Curious, she peaked into the ocular lens. In-between the glass slides underneath the objective was a piece of human skin (or more precisely, a scab). She was quite mesmerized by the pattern of red and purple cubicles. "Pretty. This future is awesome!" She jubilated, holding her knuckles in front of her mouth like she was trying to contain her excitement. "I'm a spy, I got a nice body, I get to work in a lab. Maybe I even have a car or even a cell phone." Abby felt something in her back pocket vibrate. "Eep!" She jumped in surprise. She fished the cell phone out of her pocket. She gasped. "I have a cell phone! Oh, I wonder if I have any friends besides Ty in this future."

At that moment, Abby spotted a large, steel door (or more precisely, a _vault_). She walked up to it and looked up at its tremendous size. "Hmm, I wonder what's inside here." She accidentally palmed the handprint scanner which immediately lit up. Abby quickly pulled away, fearing she might have broken something. The scanner recognized Abby Archer's hand signature and after a peep and a buzz, the door opened up.

Abby stared in awe at the abundance of gross and weird things that was stored away in the vault. A huge mechanical owl, dung balls the size of boulders, a gun that looked like a stomach a monstrous hagfish inside a fish tank and an airship shaped like a pimple where only some of the items that made the little girl go, "Wow!"

* * *

"So get your lazy bums out of your seats and find those kids right now!" The Director shouted before simmering down to a whimper. "Please. You have no idea how cruel the media can be." He then hung up and the screen turned to black.

"Well," Ty palmed his fist, "seems like The Director just got us some healthy motivation."

"Yeah, it's called pressure." LabRat retorted and swirled his chair to face the others. "We got no clue where to even start."

"Um, guys." Naomi spoke up from somewhere in the background but no one seemed to hear her.

"Shouldn't we also try to find a way to get Abby back to normal?" Chester suggested.

"Guys?" Again, Naomi was ignored.

"I'm not even sure that's even duable." Andy replied sympathetically.

"Guys!" Naomi shouted, prompting the boys to turn to her. "Abby's missing." She proclaimed bitterly.

"What! She was here a second ago." Ty exclaimed as he and the others looked around the vicinity.

"Don't worry, I'll know where she is in a second." LabRat said nonchalantly as he swirled back to his computer. He tapped the keyboard and the screen displayed surveillance footage from the gaglab's eight security cameras. "There she is." LabRat pointed at the footage where Abby admired the infamous KVK1 sport shoes, mounted behind a glass case. "Oh no, she's in the Gross-Vault."

"I'll get her." Ty exclaimed in a frustrated tone before rushing away.

* * *

Abby had somehow managed to open up the glass casing. Right now she was happily wiggling foot, clad in Keith Van Kobbler's shoe. "These would be perfect for bowling."

"Abby!" Ty cried out when he entered the Gross-Vault. "Take those off right now! They'll give you athlete's foot."

"You can't tell me what to do! I'm your big sister, remember?" Abby proclaimed, scowling and fisting her hands.

"You're being such a…" Ty was about to shout something but luckily he caught himself. He took a deep breath. "Abby, I know you're technically older than me, but right now you're not acting like an older sister. You want to be mature, don't you?" He spoke softly.

Abby pouted and lowered her head in shame, shyly looking up at her brother. "Yes."

"So come with me. I'll help you get those shoes off and then we can all help you get your memories back."

After some hesitation, Abby approached him, her shoulders and head still slumped. Then, when she was mere inches away from him, she poked Ty in the forehead and said, "Tag, you're it!" She laughed and ran off into the Gross-Vault.

"Oh, muck." Ty muttered before running after her. "Hey, come back here!"

"You have to catch me first!" Abby hollered as the two siblings chased each other thru the ensembles of Grossology memorabilia.

"I can always grab that huge ponytail of yours."

"Even with that handicap, I'll still leave you in my dust!" Abby laughed.

As Ty kept on running, a new feeling rushed over him. His heart beat faster, adrenalin pumped into his legs and his mind flashed back to his childhood when he and his sister would chase each other thru parks and backyards. Abby would even do the same puppy-dog trick she did a few seconds ago, she'd always been a good faker. All of it made him smile.

Abby covered behind the cylindrical tank with one of the giant hagfishes inside. Ty of course chased after her but Abby simple ran to the other side of the aquarium. Ty chased after her again, this time coming from the other side but Abby ran to the other side of the fish tank again. Thru the glass, she could see her brother frowning. She decided to irritate him some more by blowing a raspberry.

Ty's frown turned to a smirk when he decided to put his goopshooter on. "Hey, Abby!"

Abby peaked out from behind the tank. "Yeah."

Ty fired but she retracted in the last second and the slimy projectile only hit the glass of the tank. Abby then ran as fast as she could while Ty continued firing at her but she managed to avoid every single shot. Ty didn't take this as a serious task any longer and more as a fun game of paintball.

Abby ran by a strange looking machine, something that looked like a washing machine connected to liquid filled tanks a top a hotdog stand and accidentally tripped on a lever. "Ouch." The girl wailed in pain before scrambling onto her feet and ran away. The machine then started shaking and crooning. Smoke billowed out of its old engine.

"Oh no, Sloppy Joe's stink bomb! I go to disarm it." Ty exclaimed and ran up to the machine. The first he did was raise the lever but the machine wouldn't stop. "Okay, that did nothing." He kneeled down and removed a panel from the machine. The sight of the numerous assortment of candy coloured wires filled Ty with doubt. "Which one should I cut?" He put on his Gross-Pincher and inserted it into the machine's hull. "Um, um…" Ty's eyes followed the wires, trying to figure out which he should severe. With only five seconds to spare, he made a split second decision and cut a green wire.

The machine went silent and stopped shaking. Ty sighed in relief. However, one of the bomb's glass containers sprung a leak and squirted its green, smelly mixture all over the poor Grossologist. "Yuck!" Ty almost gagged when he inhaled the stench that had soaked his entire body.

"Ty!" Naomi exclaimed as she along with Andy and LabRat ran into the Gross-Vault. The moment the trio felt the horrible aroma emitting from Ty, they stopped in their tracks and cupped their noses. LabRat and Andy remained but Naomi darted out of the room as fast as she could.

"Ty, what happened? You reek." Andy exclaimed.

"Yeah, you smell like a dead skunk that's been brought up on nothing but stink bugs." LabRat stated.

"Or like my old sneakers if they were filled with sardines and regurgitated by a tiger shark." Andy stated.

"What happened?" LabRat asked.

Before Ty could answer, his sister jumped in between them. She snarled thru her nostrils and her lips scowled furiously. "Don't you dare pick on him."

"What?" LabRat blinked. "We weren't picking on him. We were just making some jokes. Besides, he truly does sme-

Abby didn't let him finish before she forcefully pushed him, sending him to the floor with a heavy thud. Andy looked perplexed (and a bit concerned) at his floored teammate before looking up at the girl casting the menacing shadow over the two of them. Abby's nostrils flared and her teeth grit. "No one bullies my little brother!" She grasped Ty by the wrist and ran out of the Gross-Vault with him.

As Abby dragged Ty thru the Gaglab, they crossed paths with Naomi, holding a folded towel and a plastic bottle in her arms. "Um," Naomi blinked confused, "I went to get Ty some sanitizer and a towel."

Abby glared daggers at the _prettier _girl. With her attention elsewhere, Ty jerked his hand free. "What is wrong with you, Abby? Even for a kid you're out of control."

"But Ty," Abby tried to say something.

"Listen no one here's picking on me. The only one causing trouble here is you." Ty regretted his words pretty much the moment he said them.

Abby's lips quivered and her eyes filled with tears. "Fine! I don't want to be in this stupid lab anyway!" She shouted before rushing out of the gaglab.

"Abby, wait! I'm sorry!" Ty called out to her but it was too late, she was already out of earshot. He turned to his girlfriend. "Naomi, tell the others to focus their efforts on finding the Scab Fairy. I need to take care of Abby." He then ran out of the lab himself, hoping Abby wouldn't get lost out there in a city she was too young to remember.

* * *

Ty was worried sick. He didn't know how but somehow he'd completely lost track of his amnesiac ridden sister. _'How does parents put up with these sort of things.' _Ty inwardly lamented. He decided to go home to see if his parents had heard from her.

To his bewilderment, the first thing Ty (now casually dressed) saw when he opened the door to his house was his sister, energetically talking with their parents.

"…and I want a giant bouncing castle and an inflatable pool and a mime that can do balloon animals."

Their parents seemed just as puzzled as Ty was and he was praying they didn't notice that their little girl was now even _little-er_.

"Slow down a second, dear." Petunia said, tapping her chin in perplexity. "You want a bouncing castle for your seventeenth birthday party?"

The redhead nodded so fast one would think her head would fall off. "Yes, yes, yes. And a mime to make tricks cause remember, Ty is scared of clowns." At that moment, Abby noticed her brother standing by the door. She frowned at him before immediately running upstairs.

The Archers looked questioningly at their son. "Um, we got into a fight. I'll go talk to her." Ty awkwardly explained before heading up the stairs.

"Ty, why do you smell so much?" Petunia asked in a worried tone.

The spikey haired boy stopped half-way up the stairs. "Um, my old sneakers were filled with sardines and regurgitated by a skunk-shark that had been brought up on nothing but stink bugs. Yep, that's what happened. I'll take a bath later." He said in a rush before running off.

Petunia turned to her husband. "What is wrong with our children?"

Harvey responded by pulling a beetroot out of his pocket "Well, _beets _me, eh."

Petunia sighed and rolled her eyes.

* * *

Upstairs, Ty knocked on his sister's door. "Abby, I'm sorry for shouting at you. Can I come in?" He asked softly.

There was a moment of silence before he heard her voice. "Okay, you can come in.

Upon entering his sister's room, Ty was relieved to see the KVK1 sport shoes on the floor rather than on her feet. "Oh, good. You took them off."

Abby sat on the edge of her bed, gazing at the floor. "Yeah, they smelled."

"Do your feet itch?"

Abby shook her. "No."

"Good, you didn't wear them long enough." Ty sighed in relief. "Is it okay if I sit down here?" He gestured to the bed.

"Yeah, its fine." Abby replied, still looking at the floor and fiddling her thumbs.

Ty sat down next to her on the bed. "I'm sorry for shouting at you. I guess I was just worried and didn't know how to deal with it."

"No, it was my fault. I shouldn't have pushed that LabRat guy." Abby admitted guiltily. "It's just that when I see others pick on you I remember how I felt being picked on and I get so angry and I just want to do something."

Ty blinked. His sisters words brought back memories he thought were forgotten.

* * *

_Flashback._

_Ty, five years old was walking around the playground, not really doing anything. He wore a navy blue shirt with a single white stripe over the chest and beige shorts._

"_There he is!" A feminine voice shouted. Ty turned around and was faced by three girls. One of them with curly red hair, he remember seeing earlier._

"_Hey, is it true you threw a worm at friend here?" The blonde ringleader of the trio accused him._

_Ty slowly shook his head. "No, I just wanted to show it for her and she ran away."_

"_Liar!" The curly redhead shouted at him._

"_Just keep your gross worms away from us, you freak!" The blonde exclaimed before pushing the boy to the ground. The next thing Ty saw was a pair of legs rushing pass him and his sister punching the blonde girl square in the face._

_She snarled at the other two girls that stepped back in fear. "Keep away from my little brother!"_

* * *

"I have tried to learn to keep my emotions under control." Abby's voice brought Ty's mind back to the present. "That's why mom and dad took me to that mind doctor."

"You mean a therapist?"

"Yeah and they said I was being a bad influence on you and if I didn't change my attitude and act more mature, you'd grow up badly." A pair of tears ran down her cheeks.

Ty was speechless. He didn't even remember his sister receiving anger therapy. He looked down trotted at the floor. _'Now when I think about it, Abby has always been in a rush to grow up.'_

* * *

"_Abby! Abby! Abby!" Eight year old Ty kept yelling happily as he ran into his sister's room, waving the radio-controlled toy motorboat in his hand. "Look what mom just bought me."_

_Abby sat at her working desk, writing her homework assignment. She glanced lightly at the motorboat her brother was holding before resuming looking at her homework. "Cool." She said disinterested._

"_Can you take me to the lake so I can try it out?" Ty asked with a voice full of excitement._

"_Sorry, I can't. I have to study."_

_Ty pouted. "Study, study, study. It's all you do nowadays. Will you ever have any fun?"_

"_Studying is important. More important than having fun. What's also important is keeping a schedule." Abby explained in a dull tone as she kept writing._

_Ty eyed a small notepad on Abby's desk. "Is this your schedule?" He pointed at the notepad._

_Abby nodded._

_Ty picked it up and read the first page. "It's all just studying and sleeping! Gosh! Is growing up really this boring?" Ty asked annoyed._

"_Not always. Check tomorrows schedule."_

_Ty reluctantly turned the page to the next day's schedule. To his surprise there was only one sentence repeated over and over again. _

'_Spend Time With Ty.'_

_Overcome with joy, Ty hugged his big sister from behind and Abby smiled at the hug. "Thank you Abby!" He then let go of her and headed for the door. "I'm gonna come up with a bunch of fun things for us to do and then I'm gonna do my own homework too." He jubbilated before closing the door after him._

* * *

Ty smiled at the memory but he then started to realize the implication of what Abby had been saying. "So all the times you were trying to act mature for your age, the extracurricular activities, all the extra responsibilities you've taken on at work and at school, that was all just for me? Cause you wanted to set a good example?"

"I don't know any of that but it sounds like something I would do." Abby sniffled and dried her eyes with her sleeve. "I just wanted you to have it better than I had."

"Oh, Abby." Ty laughed and pulled his sister into a hug. When he let go of her, he let one hand linger upon her back. "You're too kind for your own good, sometimes. Listen, I am grateful that you gave me someone to look up too when I was growing up but I'm sixteen now. I can manage without your example."

"You do?" Abby asked softly.

Ty's smile grew. "I would much rather you keep being my friend and my big sister instead."

Abby silently stared at her brother for a moment before wrapping her arms around him, pulling him in for a tight hug. "Thanks Ty."

Ty hugged her back, gently holding her against him and resting his head against her shoulder. "I guess I have to be the responsible sibling till you get back to normal." Ty jested.

Abby chuckled into his chest a little.

"By the way, how did you find your way home?"

Abby let go of her brother and blinked a few times, puzzled. "I-I don't know. I just wanted to get away from that lab so I started running and…ended up here."

"Well, I'm just happy you got home safe." Ty exclaimed and patted her shoulder. _'Interesting. We haven't lived long enough in this house for Abby to remember where it is. She must have run here out of force of habit. Her subconscious mind still remembers at least some in-learned behaviours. That's good. Even if we never find a way to get her back to normal, it shouldn't be impossible to help her relearn everything.'_

"Ty, look at this." Abby said suddenly and picked up a book from her bed table. "I can't believe I still have my favourite book. _Tales of the Scab Fairy_."

Ty gave a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, mom must have brought it up here."

Abby smiled as she flipped thru but her smile then faded. "I guess I'm too old for the Scab Fairy now."

Ty smiled snidely. "Well, you do still have a certain fondness for the legends, even thou you no longer believe she's real."

"The scab fairy isn't real?" The girl sounded shocked.

"Um, no. She's not." Ty replied in an awkward, reluctant tone.

"But what about Santa and the Easter Bunny?"

Ty blinked, not sure what to say to that. "You better ask mom and dad about that."

Abby simple shrugged and started turning the pages, a gentle smile gracing her face. Ty figured they might as well stay here for a moment so Abby could calm down a bit. The brave girl had been thru a lot today.

Suddenly, Ty saw something that caused his eyes to dilate. "Wait! What's that?" He immediately ripped the book out of his sister's hands and started flipping the pages until he found the page he had seen.

It was in illustration of the pink-clad Scab Fairy, surrounded by smaller fairies dressed in white, silvery dresses. The smaller fairies where turned towards the taller Scab Fairy, almost like they worshipped her. Underneath them were specks of white which reminded him of either snow or…

"What's this?" Ty asked desperately, holding the illustration up to Abby's face.

"Those are the Dandruff Fairies." Abby answered with a smile.

Ty blinked and looked at the illustration again. "The _Dandruff_ Fairies?"

"Yep. Just like Santa can't make toys for all the children, Scab Fairy can't collect all children's scabs." Abby explained. "So she gathers unwanted little girls with dandruff in their hairs and transforms them into fairies."

Ty blinked in amazement. This was it! This was the clue they had been looking for.

* * *

_An hour later, inside the Gaglab._

"I'm telling you, this is exactly what's going on!" Ty proclaimed, aggressively tapping the open picture book he was flailing about. Behind him, Abby was playing a game with a swirly chair called _'Spin around till you get too dizzy to walk'_.

The other Grossologists stared at him with a unanimous look of scepticism. "I don't really get it." LabRat admitted. "What would Helena gain from this?"

"Nothing but you said she believed herself to be the Scab Fairy so wouldn't it make sense if she did stuff the real Scab Fairy would do?" Ty was getting annoyed at his teammates' lack of faith.

"Even so, how does this help us?" Chester asked, looking even downer than usual. "Give police protection to all girls with dandruff? Spy on anyone with scabs just in case they come to collect them?"

"We won't need to, I have an idea where they could be." He walked up to them, opening up the children book on a specific page and laid it on the desk for everyone to see. The illustration was of the small Dandruff Fairies with a dense forest full of magical beings like unicorns, gnomes and elves the size of caterpillars in the background.

"According to this book, the Dandruff Fairies resides in a magical valley called Scabby Valley along with the Scab Fairy." Ty explained.

"Not to poop on your parade, Ty but that's a mythical place from a fairy tale." Naomi argued carefully, trying her best not to upset him. "It's not like we can find it on a map."

Ty didn't reply right away. Instead he went over to a computer and started typing on the keyboard. "I did some research." Ty said before turning on the large screen in the middle of the lab so the Grossologists could all see. The screen showcased a photograph of a forested valley, a map of the area and a lot of text.

"This place lies only a few clicks away from town. It's called _Snake Peel Valley_, cause I guess you can find a lot of shed snakeskins there." Ty shrugged. "However, a long time ago, when the city was only a small settlement, the native Americans had another name for it. _Scrape Valley_ or _Skin Scrape Valley_."

Andy tapped his chin. "It's not really _Scab_ Valley thou."

"No but its close enough." Ty proclaimed, with an index finger raised to the air. "Besides, we know Helena Globin has a doctor's degree in folklore. She has to be aware of this."

"Well, it's not like we got any better ideas." LabRat shrugged before facing the other Grossologists with a confident grin, feeling fairly optimistic. "Alright, you four will take the GRS-2 and check out Snake Peel Valley. Meanwhile, Abby will-

"I'm not going." Chester spoke up, silencing the young scientist.

Everyone starred at him in utter confusion. While not the most experienced, Chester had always been the most dedicated member of their group. Always giving it his all to prove his worth. Hearing he was giving up was shocking.

Even Abby stopped swirling in her chair to see what was going on.

"But why, Chester?" Naomi asked pleadingly.

"Yeah, you were really gung-ho about saving those girls a minute ago." Ty pointed out. "What's changed?"

Chester lowered his head in shame and rubbed his arm. "After my last outburst, I'm not sure I trust myself to go on another mission."

"If you're afraid to use your powers than just don't use them." Ty argued.

"Yeah, the rest of us go on missions all the time and we've never needed any superpowers." Andy stated in a light-hearted tone.

Chester shook his head. "My powers are tied to my emotions. Until I can learn to control my feelings, I am nothing but a liability."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Not much to add this time around. This was a really dialog heavy chapter and I'm not sure I'm sure if I'm entirely satisfied with it. I didn't always know when or how to break up the dialog so it comes of a bit clunky but I feel this as good as I can make it.**

**I know these last two chapters have been a bit too heavy on the dirty jokes, first with the Scab Fairy's cleavage and now with Abby's boobies but I promise, I'll cut down on it a little bit in the future (I actually did restrain myself a little in this chapter by acquitting some of Andy's dialog this chapter).**

**It was also a bit fun to come up with all the Easter eggs inside the Gross-Vault. The mechanical owl was from the episode **_**Owl Most Fowl**_**, the dung balls were from **_**Turd Wars**_**, the hagfish is from **_**Go Fish**_**, the stomach acid gun was used by Lance Boil in **_**The Insider**_**, the pimple-shaped airship was from **_**New Recruits**_**, the KVK1s were from **_**It's Gotta be the Shoes**_** and Sloppy Joe's stink bomb of course was from the episode **_**The Perfect Stink**_**.**

**As always, I would appreciate any feedback you people can give me.**

_**Until we meet again, Grossologists.**_


	4. Chapter 3

**Dance of the Dandruff Fairies**

* * *

**Chapter 3.**

The sun was setting in the west, throwing shades over the silent forest of Skin Peel Valley. The silence was suddenly broken by the booming sound of the GRS-2's jet engine as the aquamarine vehicle darted right above the canopies. "Alright, let's do this right and let's do it quickly. Finding anything in these woods will be difficult enough without the help of sunlight." Ty stated before turning on the GRS-2 radio. "Alright, LabRat. We're flying above Snake Peel Valley right now…"

* * *

"_Any idea where we should start looking?" _

In the Gaglab, LabRat sat in front of a monitor while Abby playfully swirled around in the office chair next to him. A dissatisfied frown smeared across the young scientist's face as he flipped thru Abby's copy of _Tales of the Scab Fairy_. He let out a yielding sigh. "Nothing. This book doesn't have much on dandruff fairies and what little there is, is rather vague."

"I know, I know!" Abby exclaimed loudly as she pushed aside the shut-in. "Where do I push to talk to Ty?"

"Um, no pushing. Just talk into the mic." LabRat hesitantly pointed to a stationary microphone in front of the monitor.

Abby grabbed it by the neck with both hands. "Ty, do you hear me?"

"_Yes Abby, I can hear you."_ Ty's voice mused thru the radio.

"I remember reading somewhere that the Dandruff Fairies live inside an enchanted cave with waterfalls and snow and magic mushrooms." Abby explained, full of excitement.

There was a moment of silence before Ty spoke. _"You heard that, LabRat?"_

"Yeah, I'm checking right now." LabRat stated as he typed the keyboard, staring intensely at the screen. "No waterfalls but there are a couple of caves in Snake Peel Valley." He read thru a certain article extra thoroughly. "Including a mine."

* * *

"A mine?" Ty blinked.

"_Yeah, it was apparently used during the 1940s to mine for iron. And get this, no one has been to it in nearly ten years." _LabRat explained thru the GRS-2's radio. _"It's located a few kilometres to the west of your coordinates. Follow the mountainside and you can't miss it."_

"Closed off, I guess." Ty said off handily.

"An abandoned mine would be a perfect place to set up a workshop. You wouldn't have to start from scratch." Andy stated. "Mad or not, Scab Fairy is still an inventor."

"We'll check it out immediately, LabRat." Ty talked into the radio.

"_Fly safe." _LabRat exclaimed.

"_And bring me back a souvenir!" _Abby's voice squealed thru the radio.

"We'll see about that." Ty scoffed and steered the GRS-2 in the direction of the mine.

"It does beg the question thou," Naomi began saying, "how can someone who invent and use technology actually believe they're magic?"

Ty let out a sigh. "The mentally ill create their own logic. Someone as deep into their conviction like Helena Globin will keep living inside their delusion regardless of evidence to the contrary. If you asked her, she'd probably tell you her inventions _are_ magic."

* * *

The GRS-2 touched down at the mountain side that bordered the west end of the valley. In front of them was a typical 18th century mine with rails leading into it and its entrance was framed by a structure of wooden beams. Ty pulled up a spoke and pushed his controllers forward, driving the GRS-2 into the mountain. "Andy, turn on the ship's scanner, will you?"

The white-clade Grossologist nod off in surprise. "Huh? Um, sure."

The road ahead was already illuminated by the vehicle's headlights but now, a second pair of lights installed in the GRS-2's fenders cast a wave of green light thru the tunnel. It was scanning the mine for organic material.

Andy read the results on the little computer in front of him. "The mine is littered with human scabs," He double checked the readings, "and dandruff."

"Did you hear that, LabRat?" Ty spoke to the radio.

"_Yeah, I'm gonna try to see if the DNA matches that of the crime scenes."_

"I'll guess we just have to follow the trail of breadcrumbs." Ty japed.

"At least we know there won't be any birds eating these ones." Naomi retorted, earning her a small chuckle from her boyfriend.

Only fifteen meters in, the tunnel came to a sudden stop. A barricade of wooden planks blocked the Grossologists to continue any further.

"Oh no, shut close." Ty lamented. His lips then curved up into a smirk. "Anyone up for ramming it?"

"NO!" Both his teammates shouted simultaneously.

"Yeah, probably for the best. Not wanna do anything that could cause a cave-in." Ty stood up from his seat and tapped his Gross-Com. "LabRat, we're getting out of the vehicle."

"_No!" _Surprisingly, it was his sister's voice that came thru. _"Don't go into the cave, Ty. You may get lost. You know our mom has advised us from running into condemned places."_

* * *

"Um, Abby?" LabRat gently budged the redhead away from the microphone. "I understand you're worrying for Ty but he's a seasoned secret agent. He can take care of himself so don't sweat it."

Abby pouted. "I wouldn't worry if you send me with them."

"I can't send you on field duty until your head injury heals. Besides, you know Ty would burn me on a stick if I put you in harm's way."

Abby groaned and pouted.

* * *

"Interesting." Andy commented as he hoovered right below the cave ceiling. He'd just found that the barricade wasn't as solid as it looked. "Hey, guys. There's a human sized hole up in the corner here."

"Human sized _and_ high up. Seems perfect for a flying supermodel." Ty mused. "Do you see anything on the other side?"

Andy peered into the opening. "Yeah, light, _dim_ light. The tunnel is being lit up by low watt tube lights."

"Seriously?" Ty gasped.

"Seriously." Andy confirmed.

"Seem like we still got more to explore then." Naomi stated.

"Yep." Ty bowed and offered Naomi a helping hand. "Would my lady like a lift up?"

Naomi simple smirked. She jumped onto a rock that stuck out from the wall before spring-loading herself backwards, curled in mid-air and disappeared thru the hole in the barricade. Like a thread thru a needle.

"You guys coming over?" They could hear her giggle from the other side.

Andy simple smiled, shrugged and flew thru the hole.

Ty aimed his Gross-Pincher at the opening and fired the upper claw which attached itself to the barricade like a grappling hook. Ty then simple let the gadget haul him up and he slipped thru the hole.

He landed elegantly on the other side. He gave a quick look-over of his teammates before leading them further into the tunnel. The walls and ceiling had plenty of electrical wires and thou the light was dim, the tube lights were clear evidence that this place wasn't as abandoned as it appeared to be.

Andy stroked his hands over the wall. He then used the zoom-function on his Grossgoggles to examine the white flakes that gotten stuck to his fingers. "There's dandruff here too."

Ty crouched down and used his Gross-Pincers to pick up a pink slab off the ground. "And more scabs. We're definitely on the right track." He chuckled. "Get it? Tracks? As in rails?"

Andy sighed. "Yes, Ty. We get it."

Naomi walked slightly ahead of her teammates when some white dust tinkled down in front of her. Some landed on her nose, making her sneeze. She looked up and was meet with one of the oddest sights in her life. "Guys?"

The two boys followed her pointing finger, looked up at the ceiling and were struck with the same feeling of shock as their teammate. What they saw was dandruff completely covering the ceiling but not any normal kind of dandruff. Each and every flake was enormous. Thick like a rock and more than half-a-meter in diameter.

Ty squinted his eyes. "Are-are those things moving?"

Andy and Naomi realized he was right. The dandruff was moving, scrapping and nudging each other like they were trying to make room. Suddenly, one of the dandruff flakes dropped from the ceiling and landed behind them. The Grossologists all spun around and came face to face with the true nature of this dandruff. It was in fact an arthropod with eight legs and a pair of sharp, opposable fangs. Even more terrifying was the fact that it was the size of an American Pitbull. It hissed and aggressively clasped its fangs at the Grossologists.

Naomi immediately drew her Gagstaff while Andy armed himself with his goopshooter. Ty thou remained calm and used the bio-scanner on his GrossWatch to examine the creature. "LabRat, you got this?"

"_Yeah, I'm aware." _LabRat's voice spoke thru their Gross-Coms. _"That thing's a Dandruff Mite. Also called Walking Dandruff."_

"Walking dandruff?" Naomi blinked.

"_Quite the nasty little parasite. They burry into the skin of its hosts, causing the skin to get irritated and flake. Some species even camouflage themselves as dandruff."_

Then, three other dandruff mites dropped to the floor and took up the same threatening stance against the Grossologists. Then two others. Then four more landed.

The team of Grossologists took a fearful step back. "I'm starting to think these mites will do something far worse to our skin than just irritate it." Ty stated in a fearful tone.

At that moment, one dandruff mite fell off the ceiling and landed on Andy's head who shrieked at feeling its legs tangle in his hair. Using her Gagstaff, Naomi immediately struck the creature off her teammate's head, sending it flying at other mites.

"They're going to flay us!" Ty cried out.

The mites on the ground rushed at the Grossologists while the ones in the ceiling started dropping upon them but they were quick to react. Ty and Andy fired their goopshooter at the incoming arachnids while Naomi swatted them with her Gagstaff, its static shocks paralyzed any mite that was hit with the full blunt of the weapon. In the end it wasn't the strength of their enemies but their numbers that overwhelmed them. "There's too many of them!" Naomi exclaimed.

"You're right, let's leg it." Ty ordered. He let Andy and Naomi run ahead of him while he stayed behind and made a barrier of slime with his goopshooter, hoping it would slow down the mites. He then ran after his teammates.

* * *

"Ty, no! Run out of the mine, not further in!" Abby shouted at the monitor. Seeing her little brother getting assaulted by mutated bugs without doing anything about it was worse than the scariest horror movie she'd ever seen. "LabRat, do something!"

"Relax. This is on the low end of freaky situations Ty's gotten himself out of. Here, take a candy bar." LabRat said and handed her a wrapped candy bar.

Abby frowned at him but none the less, took the candy bar and bit off a marginable chunk of it, shewing it bitterly.

* * *

The Grossologists had run out of the tunnel and followed the railway into a large cavernous area with a seemingly bottomless pit. From here, the railway went uphill making it even harder for them to run with the dandruff mites practically knowing at their heels already.

At that moment, Andy noticed a large metal pipe mounted above the railway. "Ty, I got an idea." Andy exclaimed before activating his hoover-boots.

He flew up to the pipe and pulled a wrench out of his belt. Andy didn't know much about mining but he knew that these sort of pipes where usually used to drain the mines of water and other waste products. He started to unscrew the bolts on the pipe.

Ty saw his teammate and understood what he was thinking but he also feared Andy might have miscalculated. _'Better safe than sorry.' _He thought to himself. "Naomi, let me carry you."

"What? Ty, I don't need-

This time, Ty wouldn't have it. He pulled her to him by the wrist and lifted her up bridal style. He then activated his jetpack and jetted forward.

Andy had managed to unscrew four bolts so far and while he wanted to do more, he understood he was out of time. _'This pipe and these bolts are pretty old and rusty so they might break anyway.' _He flew higher before slamming his entire bodyweight onto the pipe which broke and let out a torrent of sludge and dirty water. With only seconds to spare, Ty and Naomi passed by the wet avalanche but the dandruff mites where not so lucky as they were flushed off the railway by the torrent of dirty water and into the dark abyss.

Ty deactivated his jetpack once he landed and Naomi slipped out of his arms. Andy then descended from the air and landed in front of the couple. He was a bit worried his plan had been too rash but all his worries evaporated when he saw the smiles of his teammates.

"Andy! Way to go, buddy!" Ty cheered and punched his best friend in the shoulder. He probably put more force into it than intended but he was just so proud of him that he couldn't help it.

Naomi practically threw herself at the chubby little guy, giving him a tight hug. "You were amazing, Andy!"

Andy blushed and tried to say something but all that came out of him was incoherent stammering.

* * *

While the Grossologists where busy celebrating their minor victory, one dandruff mite had strayed from the pack and headed in the opposite direction of the mine. It came upon the wooden boards and started climbing up the barricade. It fell thru the hole and landed on its carapace. After some straggling, it managed to right itself onto his legs.

It then found itself a warm place to rest…

The GRS-2.

* * *

"Did you see that, LabRat? My brother and that chubby pervert were absolutely amazing!" Abby jubilatted and randomly gave LabRat a quick hug.

"Don't forget that Naomi kicked a lot of mite-butt too." LabRat pointed out.

"Yeah, whatever." Abby brushed off the comment. "But Ty was so cool with that jetpack. Whoow! And he does those kind of things all the time?"

"Not just him. You pull of all sort of amazing stunts all the time. Both of you are some of the best Grossologists there's ever been and the rest of the team is catching up to you." LabRat explained. "You should know how much this town owes to you two."

Abby smiled at the praise and the feeling of pride she felt over her brother but that feeling soon vanished, along with her smile. Another emotion creeped into her. She couldn't quiet place it. It was a feeling of emptiness. "Um, LabRat?"

The young scientist had resumed operate the monitor but he looked over at her when she spoke up.

"Will you need me here anymore?" She asked.

"Hmm, I don't think so. I'll call you if we're in need of more of your Scab Fairy wisdom."

"I was thinking to take a look around the lab. I promise not to break anything." Abby held her hands over her chest and gave him her puppy dog face.

"Sure. Just don't go into the Gross-Vault again." LabRat shot her a smile before resuming operating the monitor.

Abby hung her head low, not even looking at all the scientific equipment as she sauntered thru the gaglab. "Ty was right, he doesn't need me anymore." She lamented to herself. "He's so brave and clever now and he has friends to rely on, even if they are a chubby pervert and a pretty girl I can't stand." She let out a sigh. "What am I supposed to do with myself now when I'm not needed?"

When she walked past an open door she stopped in her tracks and stepped back. The room inside looked like a gym and that odd blonde boy on a mattress in the middle of it, seemingly meditating and listening to music. "Chester?"

Startled, Chester opened his eyes and turned off the music with a remote. "Oh, hey Abby." He greeted her in a friendly tone.

Abby approached him. "What are you doing in here?"

Chester got onto his feet. "Just trying to find a way calm my nerves. I-I really messed up last time." He rubbed the back of his head.

Abby tilted her head. "You mean when you erased my memories?"

"Yeah." Chester looked away in guilt. "I just have it way too easy to let my emotions get the best of me."

"Yeah, I have that problem too." Abby admitted, feeling shame build inside of her as her eyes fell to the side. "That was why my parents sent me to a terrorist."

"Therapist." Chester corrected. "And yeah, I know. You told me."

"I did?" Abby blinked. She hadn't even told Ty about it until today.

"Um, yeah," Chester again rubbed the back of his head but this time it was in embarrassment, "You actually gave me some really good advice on how to wire down. Wish I was a bit better at implementing them thou."

"Really? Can you teach me?" Abby asked giddily.

Chester blinked. "Um, sure. First step you used to tell was to not fight your emotions but to flow with them."

Abby tilted head and raised a puzzled eyebrow.

"Yeah, you were a lot better at explaining this than me." Chester stroked his hand thru his hair. "Anyway, the second step you mentioned is to think about something you're grateful for."

Abby pouted. "Well, I'm not grateful for anything right now."

"Because of your memory loss?" Chester asked. The concern in his voice made Abby feel oddly safe and a bit humble.

"No, I'm used to it. It's just…I feel sort of useless." Abby admitted.

"That's not true at all!" Chester cried out without even thinking. Seeing Abby's befuddled expression caused him to step back. "I mean," Chester paused as he contemplated what he should tell her, "even thou you've forgotten some of your skills, you can always learn those skills again."

"Really?"

Chester nodded. "Of course. You might not be able to do much right now but I know you got more potential than you can even believe." _'That's how I feel about myself whenever I see you.' _He thought to himself.

Abby smiled from ear to ear. She felt so dejected a moment ago yet only a minute of talk with this blonde boy and suddenly she felt ready to take on the entire world. That was when she had an idea. _'If Ty has new friends in this future, maybe I can make friends as well.' _She grabbed the boy's wrist. "Do you want to show me around the lab?"

Chester's eyes were wide with confusion. "Um, sure I guess but I think-

Abby didn't let him finish before dragging him out of the room, a childlike laughter escaping her throat.

* * *

"Ty," Naomi spoke up as she and Ty walked down yet another tunnel while Andy walked ahead of them, "I'm sorry I was so stubborn back there."

"That's alright."

Naomi's face sunk. "You and the others do so much and I-I just don't want to be seem useless."

Ty smiled and rolled his eyes. "I don't think you nor Chester are useless but you're definitely overly ambitious and way too hard on yourselves." He stopped walking and made sure she meet his gaze. "There's nothing wrong with relying on others, right? That's why we're a team."

Naomi smiled and noded. _'Ty's smile is so cute.' _"Right!"

"Um, guys?" Andy called out as he stared wide eyed into a crevasse carved into the side of the tunnel. "You should see this." Ty and Naomi ran to him. Both of them gasped simultaneously when they saw the same thing that had stunned their teammate.

It was a cave filled with a thick layer of _snow. _It even glistened like a winter wonderland. "Is this…snow?" Naomi wondered as the team stepped onto the blanket of compacted flakes.

"Nah, it's too warm for snow. Besides, I think we all know what it is." Ty exclaimed.

Andy scanned the floor with his GrossWatch and checked the results. "Dandruff, but there's so much of it."

"So, you've finally found me, goblins." Immediately upon hearing that voice, the Grossologists drew their weapons and aimed them upwards. The Scab Fairy descended from the darkness up above with a wicked smirk on her lips.

"Wow, look at those curves." Andy said with a giddy grin.

"Andy, focus!" Ty chastised his lewd teammate.

"A scientist, a cosplayer and a total babe. She'd be totally my type if it wasn't for the entire crazy villain stuff." Andy joked.

"For the love of Darwin, this is a kidnapping case! Take it seriously!" Ty roared furiously.

"Oh, sorry." Andy exclaimed bashfully.

"I have to say, you goblins are amazingly dedicated to vexing me." The Scab Fairy stated. "You even surpassed my dandruff mites. I paid plenty a' coin to a witch called Arachnidia for those creepy crawlies. One bite from one of those and you'll be washing dandruff out of your hair for weeks."

"Was that how you gave those girls dandruff in the first place?" Ty asked.

"Wouldn't be a bad idea and I'll certainly use it later when I need some extra labour but no. twenty-one days ago, I detonated a small bomb containing enchanted yeast near a grade school. I then simple waited till the children got dandruff and had my pick of the litter with the use of this." She pulled out a small device from behind her back. It looked like a fancy handheld mirror with angel wings carved into its frame but instead of a looking glass it had a computer screen built into it. "This is the Dandruff-Catcher. It can locate anyone with dandruff within an entire miles radius."

"Enough with the show n' tell!" Ty barked at her. "Get down on the ground and tell us where the missing kids are."

The Scab Fairy simple grinned and pushed a button on her Scab Sceptre. Five hydraulic containers were lowered down from the ceiling, all drum-shaped and about six feet tall. One after one, they opened up, revealing the five missing girls (including the brunette Ellie) inside. All of them wore the same long, white dresses and had similar kinds of mechanical wings on their backs as the Scab Fairy, except theirs were rounder and more butterfly like. All of them seemed to be asleep.

Naomi gasped and covered her mouth, Andy blinked and Ty grit his teeth.

"Dandruff Fairies! Wake up and say hey to your new playmates!" The Scab Fairy hollered.

The little girls opened their eyes, revealing that their irises had turned silver and their pupils had turned white. A state of brainwashing. All at once, the girls flew out of their containers and started to flock around the Grossologists like a swarm of angry bees.

They then drew wands out of their sleeves and Ellie thrusted it at Andy, blasting him in the face with a white ray that burst into dandruff upon impact. The chubby Grossologist cringed and started scratching his nose.

"Andy!" Ty exclaimed worryingly.

"It's fine. Their blasts don't hurt. They just itch a little." Andy stated.

Meanwhile, Naomi were jumping and trying to grab the two Dandruff Fairies flying above her but to no avail. She was hit in the neck by one of the Dandruff Fairies and stopped to scratch it. _'They're not dangerous, just irritating. Still, I can't use my martial arts against them. They're just children after all. Brainwashed children but still.'_

Ty and Andy stood back to back as they fired their goopshooters at the flying girls, only lose shots thou, hoping it would immobilize their wings while they were still flying low. One of the Dandruff Fairies hovered still in the air and Ty took aim at her, certain of a direct hit. However, just as he was about to shoot, the little girl fired her wand directly into the goopshooter's barrel. Ty squeezed the trigger but instead of an explosive burst of slime, there was a fart-noise before green sludge squeezed itself out of the barrel. "Hey, what gives?" Ty complained, giving his goopshooter a look over.

"That's called wet dandruff, you ignorant goblin." The Scab Fairy explained. "Extraordinary oily dandruff that sticks to hair like glue and I'm afraid it just _glued_ your dirty little toy shut." She cackled maniacally before holding up her Scab Sceptre and pushed another button.

Suddenly, the ceiling that had been so high up it been covered in darkness now let in light as a giant scuttle opened up, revealing the starry night sky above.

"Playtime is over! Let's take to the stars, my pretties!" The Scab Fairy proclaimed before she headed towards the open ceiling with her Dandruff Fairies following her close behind.

"Oh no, you don't!" Ty activated his jetpack and jetted after the escaping fairies. In truth thou, without his goopshooter he had no way to apprehend the Scab Fairy in mid-air but he didn't even think of it. All he cared about was getting to those girls in time.

With all of her little helpers out of the cavern, The Scab Fairy grinned as she once again pushed the button. Ty was mere seconds away from the opening when the scuttle closed in front of him. Ty instinctively decelerated before the doors could crush him, leaving him hovering with a shocked expression of disbelief.

They failed.

* * *

The GRS-2 touched down in the gaglab's hangar bay. LabRat was awaiting them, Hermes perched atop his shoulder as usual. The GRS-2's door opened up and the three Grossologists walked out, all of them slumping their heads and shoulders in misery as they mosey along.

"Welcome back." LabRat greeted.

"We completely failed." Naomi sighed regretfully.

"I was this close, LabRat. This close." Ty pinched his fingers to demonstrate. "Yet, I couldn't save a single child."

"Well, at least you tried something." Andy exclaimed. "We were useless."

"Cheer up." LabRat placed a comforting hand on Ty's shoulder. "Today was definitely a failure but at least we now know the girls are alive."

"Brainwashed but sure." Ty jived.

"We'll find them again soon enough. Come on, you three need to fill out a report to The Director."

"Oh, that sounds like fun." Ty retorted sarcastically as the three of them followed LabRat out of the hangar bay.

The moment they we're out of the room, Abby and Chester snuck in. "Um, Abby? Why are we sneaking around?" The blonde asked.

"For fun. It's like playing hind 'n seek without the looker knowing." Abby ran up to the GRS-2. "Wow, this is so cool. Is this like a spaceship or something? Have we been fighting aliens?"

"I don't think so. That's the bureau's alt-terrain vehicle, the GRS-2." Chester replied.

"Two?" Abby blinked. "What happened with GRS-1?"

"Andy turned it into a robot and then that robot was crushed by another robot that looked like a dinosaur."

Abby just stared at him with a raised brow.

Chester shyly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, things really does get weird around here."

"Can we go inside?" Abby head gestured to the vehicle.

Chester scratched his hand. "Well, any registered Grossologist can get in but I don't think-

Before he could finish, Abby opened the vehicle's door and got inside. She marvelled at the controls and monitors in the relatively spacious vehicle. "Wow, this looks almost like the set for an old sci-fi show on cable TV. Hey, do you know how to drive this?" She turned to the blonde boy who had just stepped aboard.

For some reason, Chester was a bit taken by the question. "Um…" The hallucination of Kid Rot popped up next to him. _"Tell her you can and offer her a ride. And then, she might offer you a ride." _The parasite chuckled. Chester huffed and waved off the hallucination. "No, I'm not a pilot. I'm not much of a tech guy at all, actually. I'm more of a flora and fungi kind of guy."

"So, who usually drives this thing then?"

"Either you or Ty. You're both really good pilots."

"Really?" Abby asked rhetorically as she walked over to the pilot seat, stroking the armrest before slumping down into the seat.

Unfortunately, Abby failed to notice the eight legged creature, crawling up the backrest behind her. She eyed the control board in front of her with a wanting smile. "Maybe we should take this darling for a ri-

Suddenly, the stowaway dandruff mite jumped onto her head and dug its claws and fangs into her scalp. Abby shrieked in horror and got off the seat. "Get it off! Get it off!"

Chester didn't even think but immediately swatted the arthropod off his teammate's head. It bounced off the wall and fell onto its back. Chester then blasted it with a ray of dark energy. The mite died immediately, its legs cramped in to itself as rigor mortis settled in.

"Are you okay?" Chester almost shouted with worry. He grabbed Abby by her right shoulder while parting some hair on her forehead. The bug had left some claw marks in her scalp but nothing serious.

"I'm fine." Abby said as Chester forced her head down so he could study the head injury she got previously, just to make sure the mite hadn't reopened any wounds. Everything seemed fine thou.

Chester sighed in relief. "Thank god. You seem fine but I still think LabRat should look you over."

"What was that thing?" Abby asked.

"I don't know." Chester glanced at the dead body. "Seem like some sort of arachnid."

"Not it. I mean what you just did. What was that?"

With a look of absolute horror, Chester let go of her and took a few steps back. He stared at her with tense, fearful eyes.

Abby stared back at him with eyes full of confusion, begging for understanding.

Chester's head lowered in defeat. _'Why am I even trying to hide it? She would have found out eventually. She deserve to know.' _"It's my powers." He spoke but couldn't bring himself to look up at her. "I can rot organic matter instantaneously."

Abby tilted her head. Once again, this Chester person puzzled her. As far as she knew, he was the only human being on the planet with superpowers. One would think he'd be happy over it but he seemed so distraught. Did his powers hurt? Maybe he felt like an outcast. Abby could certainly relate to that. _'Wait, rot? Didn't he mention someone with a name like that earlier?' _Abby pondered. "Are you Kid Rot?"

Chester froze up upon hearing that. He could not imagine Abby saying anything worse. _'She'll see me as Kid Rot, as a monster. Please don't hate me. Please, don't leave me.'_

"Abby!" Ty cried out as he and LabRat rushed into the vehicle. "We heard you screaming. Are you alright?"

Abby smiled reassuringly at her little brother. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"What happened?" LabRat asked.

"It was my fault." Chester started, gazing at the floor. "We snuck in here and that thing attacked Abby." He gestured to the dead dandruff mite. "I killed it with my rot powers without even thinking."

"It's one of the dandruff mites." LabRat stated as he strapped on a pair of yellow gloves and picked the carcass off the floor.

"Don't blame him." Abby pleaded. "I didn't listen to him when I snuck in here and he saved my life. Or at least my hair. Same thing, really."

"I think we've had enough excitement for one day." LabRat stated. "I need to analyse and profile all of today's findings. You guys should go home and get some rest. Maybe we can pick up our search tomorrow."

* * *

The Archer siblings were walking home. Abby couldn't help but notice the dejected expression on her brother's face. "Ty, did the mission not go over well?"

Ty sighed. "No, Abby. It didn't go well."

"I wish I could have been useful." Abby said in a depressed manner.

Ty chuckled a bit. "I think you did more to help than anyone else today, Abby. Even without your memories you're apparently the best of us."

The girl beamed like the sun. "Thanks but you know, I saw you on LabRat's big computer. You were amazing, even thou that chubby pervert did the most important stuff. I believe that tomorrow you'll be beating the bad guy and saving the day like a superhero."

Ty smiled at her. "Thanks Abby. I feel a bit more cheery now."

Their house came into view and Ty started to think of an excuse to give their parents as to where they've been all day.

"Ty, can I ask you something?" Abby sounded shy.

"Um, sure."

Abby hesitated to voice her question for a moment. "Is Chester and I close?"

Ty grinned mischievously as they walked onto the pathway of their yard. "How _close_ do you wish?"

"Like, are we friends? Do we hang out and such?" Abby asked, seemingly oblivious to Ty's _subtle_ hints.

"Oh." Ty stopped in front of the door. "Well, I don't know the complete nature of your relationship but I know for sure that Chester cares for you." He opened the door and entered their house.

"_Cares for me, eh?" _Abby whispered to herself before entering her home. She had an idea of what she wanted to do tomorrow.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**In hindsight, I feel like maybe I should have written this episode earlier. I sort wanted to use this story to develop Abby and Chester as friends rather than love interests but since I already wrote in some shipping-moments in episode 5 (**_**That Mockingbird Won't Sing**_**) it's a bit difficult to make it come off that way. Oh well, live and learn I guess. **

**On the upside, I feel like I've learned much from working on this story. I had no idea what dandruff mites or wet dandruff was until I did some research for this chapter. Yes people, those are real things.**

**As always I'll appreciate any feedback you guys can give me. Been kind of sparse with reviews lately so it would be nice.**

_**Till we meet again, Grossologists.**_


	5. Chapter 4

**Dance of the Dandruff Fairies**

* * *

**Chapter 4.**

LabRat was somewhat of an insomniac. He could keep going for days without sleep, weather it being for Grossology or for video games. Last night thou, he hadn't been able to keep the sandman away.

It was now midmorning and LabRat was slumped over his worktable, surrounded by empty soda cans and energy drinks. Hermes was curled up in his master's hoodie, sleeping just as soundly.

Suddenly, LabRat's cell phone started buzzing. This startled the two awake, Hermes scurried onto the table as LabRat fished his phone out of his pocket. _'Must be mom.' _He thought, too tired to check the screen. "Hello?"

"_Hey, LabRat! It's Abby."_

* * *

"_Abby? Didn't expect you to call this early. How you doing?"_

The teenage girl laid sprawled out on her unmade bed, phone to her hear and the family pet sleeping by her feet. After coming home last night, Abby had immediately discovered Hairball and fallen in love with the little kitten all over again. She'd taken him to her room and played with him till she fell asleep. When morning came, Abby had gotten right to rummaging thru her wardrobe. As it turned out, purple was still her favourite colour. However, she didn't quite feel like herself today so she decided to wear something a little different than usual. A knee-lengthy, orange summer dress with limey green frills and straps.

"I'm doing fine, LabRat." Abby replied.

"_Do you remember anything new? Something you couldn't remember yesterday?" _LabRat asked over the phone.

Abby was about to answer but stopped when she realized she could use the boy's curiosity to her advantage. "Maybe."

"_Maybe?" _He sounded puzzled.

"Yeah, do you think you can give me the addresses of our teammates?" Abby asked in a tone so innocent, she simple had to have something mischievous in mind. Not that LabRat noticed.

"_Sure I can."_

LabRat was good at typing so after twenty seconds, Abby had received the names and addresses of her fellow Grossologists via e-mail, including one she was particularly happy to see. "Thank you, LabRat. You're a pearl."

"_So does this help you remember anything?"_

"Nope, nothing. Bye now." Abby hung up on him and jolted out of bed.

She then grabbed her little backpack and headed for the door but then she caught her reflection in her full sized mirror. She tilted her head in contemplation before walking up to the oblong mirror. She turned on her side and held up her ponytail by the base for examination.

"Hmm, this ponytail may be great for future Abby but it's just not me. I think I'll do some changes before I leave."

* * *

Ty was watching TV in the living room while eating his breakfast cereals. He was watching a live press-conference The Director was holding to address the public concern about the missing children.

"What do you mean you could _locate_ the children but not retrieve them?" One reporter shouted at him while holding up her microphone.

"I mean that our agents did um, find the culprit and the missing kids but they-they got away before we could apprehend them." The Director was fidgeting like a scared animal. "We were simple unprepared."

"Unprepared? What measures are you taking now to get the kids back?"

"We are, um…" The Director was cold sweating and patted his forehead with a napkin.

"Are your bureau underfunded?" One reporter shouted just before everyone started to voice their questions one after another.

"Any risk more children will be abducted now?"

"What's your response to the people who think this case should be handled by the police?"

"Is it true that you're still living with your mother?"

"People, people. Please, one at a time." The Director pleaded to no avail for the crowd to calm down but they would not be silenced.

Ty sighed. "Poor guy. Not his fault we couldn't stop that maniac." He took another scoop from his cereal bowl and chewed it slowly.

While Ty was distracted by the idiot box and the sugary flakes, a pair of purple sneakers quietly tiptoed down the stairs. He then heard some noise behind him and turned around. No one was there but the curtains were flailing due to a light breeze blowing in thru the living room window.

"Were those windows open before?" Ty asked with a raised eyebrow. Just as he was about to get off the couch, Hairball strutted up to him and strokes his head against his leg. "Oh, it was just you." Ty chuckled.

* * *

Regardless if it was outdoors or inside his own room, Chester loved gardening. Working with his hands helped him relax and seeing those beautiful flowers bloom and eating those tasteful vegetables he'd poured so much time and effort into filled him with a sense of pride.

At the moment he was replacing the soil for his Scarlett Star Plant. When he came home after being Kid Rot's host for two and a half years, Chester didn't expect any of his houseplants to be alive and while most of them had withered and died, this one had not only survived thanks to his grandmother's attentive care but it had even bloomed. It had been like a happy little welcome home gift.

He was about to water the plant when the doorbell rang. His grandparents were out grocery shopping so he rushed out of his room to go get it himself. When he opened the front door, he was met by an unusual (but not necessarily unpleasant) sight.

Abby stood in front of him but she was lacking her characteristic ponytail. Instead, her hair was branded into two shoulder-lengthy pigtails on either side of her head. She look more like the little girl in the photos Petunia showed him yesterday. He also didn't fail to notice her new attire.

"Hey Chester!" She greeted.

"What happened to your hair?" Chester didn't mean to say it out laud, it just slipped out of him.

"I changed it. The ponytail didn't feel like me, you know." Abby replied. "Do you like it?"

Chester blinked. "It looks fine. Um, why are you here?"

"Well, since neither of us has anything to do, I thought we could play together." Abby said giddily. Except for Ty, she'd never had a friend to hang out with before so she was a bit excited.

"I don't think that would be such a good idea, Abby."

Abby frowned. "Why not?"

"You're still supposed to be recovering from your head trauma. I don't even think you should be moving about so much." Chester explained before pulling out his cell phone. "I'll just call Ty so he can walk you home."

"No, wait. That's not necessary!" Abby exclaimed and snatched the phone out of his hands.

Chester blinked. "Why not?"

"Um, because…" She scratched the back of her head as she tried to think of an excuse. "It was Ty's idea I'd come here in the first place."

Chester blinked again. "It was?"

Abby nodded. "Yep. He said you were the perfect candidate to show me around town. You know, since I forgotten were all the fun places around here."

"But I haven't even lived in this city for very long." Chester stated in a confused manner.

"Yeah but you know, the others are busy chasing bad guys. Besides, there's something I've always wanted to do but was always too young for?"

Chester raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

Abby grinned. "Watch an R-rated movie!"

* * *

_Two Hours Later…_

Abby and Chester were seated in a movie theatre. Except for them, there was only a few other teenagers and adults there. The film playing was a horror movie titled _I Screamed Leech_.

Chester was aware of Abby's phobia for leeches and was worried she'd be overwhelmed by the giant leeches on screen but she didn't seemed faced by it. Not at first anyway. Abby had a huge box of popcorn in her lap and a mega-sized soda to her left.

She took a handful of popcorn and crammed it into her mouth. She then looked over at Chester. "You want some popcorn?" Abby asked, popcorn crumbs spitting out of her mouth.

"I think you just gave me some." Chester joked and wiped some crumbs of his face.

About an hour in, the movie had its first big scare as a giant leech busted out of the heroine's stomach in an explosion of blood and gore. Everyone in the movie theatre, except for Chester, shrieked and Abby got so startled that she dropped popcorn all over herself. From then, she was shaking in fear. She turned around in her seat and buried her face in the backrest.

Chester couldn't help but smirk a little. "You know, this film isn't even R-rated. We're still only sixteen after all."

Abby whimpered.

* * *

Once the film was over, the two got out of the movie theatre. "That movie was awesome!" Abby stated in a cheerful tone, there was even a sprint in her step as she threw her empty soda mug in a trashcan.

"You sure?" Chester smiled lopsidedly and tilted his head a bit. "You were shivering thru most of the movie."

"Yeah, it was scary but it was like, fun-scary like a rollercoaster." Suddenly, Abby froze up as realization dawned on her. "Wait a minute. I am finally tall enough!"

Chester blinked. "Tall enough for what?"

* * *

Abby screamed her lungs out as she and Chester rode the tallest and fastest rollercoaster ride at Log Land. Oddly, even thou Abby had eaten a whole box of popcorn earlier and Chester hadn't eaten anything, she had no stomach ills at all while he seemed to be on the brink of vomiting.

* * *

After the rollercoaster, the duo went on a few more Log Land rides, such as the drop tower and the bumper cars (Abby obviously dominated at bumper cars).

Then the two went for something a little bit different. A pepper eating contest. A challenge one could take at one of Log Land's food stands. They were seated opposite each other at a table inside a tent and were both given a basket filled with chilli pepper and a jug of ice water was placed next to them. First to reach for the water would lose.

They started eating. One fruit after another, Abby ate a lot quicker than Chester and at first it seemed she would beat him but after almost five minutes, Abby was panting like a dog. Her scorched tongue hung out of her mouth and every breath she took felt like exhausting fire. Meanwhile, Chester kept eating chilli at a casual pace.

Reluctantly, Abby reached for another pepper but her eyes involuntarily turned to the jug of water. Glistening drops rolled down the jug. She just couldn't take it anymore! She tossed the pepper to the wind, grabbed the water jug and chugged down half of it in three large gulps. She gasped with relief as water ran down the edge of her jaw.

She then stared at Chester who simple smiled at her. "I guess I win then."

"How can you eat so much?" Abby asked baffled.

"Unfortunately, chilli is pretty much the only thing my grandpa eats. I guess I'm used to it."

"How is that unfortunate?" Abby asked, only for her rear end to let out a small fart.

"That's why." Chester retorted as Abby blushed and snickered.

* * *

Next, Abby wanted to play some soccer and luckily there was an empty field with goals by the park. Abby had three soccer balls lined up in front of her while Chester got to be goalkeeper.

"Why do I have to be goalie?" Chester asked, trying to hide his dissatisfaction.

"Cause you're the one wearing gloves." Abby replied before powerfully kicking her first ball. Chester tried reaching for it but the ball passed him by and hit the net.

Abby kicked the second one. Chester threw himself after it but missed anyway. He had just gotten onto his feet when Abby kicked the third ball and it forcefully collided with his stomach. Chester felt the air leave him before collapsing onto his knees.

Abby then ran over to him and patted his back. "Good job, Chester you managed to block one." She then picked up the ball and resumed her position.

Despite the pain, Abby's words made Chester cheer up exponentially. Chester had never cared for sports but it was mostly because for most of his life, no one let him play with them and on the few occasions they had, they were mostly annoyed by him. Abby on the other hand enjoyed his company even when he didn't play very well.

As Chester watched Abby play hacky sack with the soccer ball, kicking it over and over again with both feet and knees, he realized something was different. Usually whenever Chester was around Abby, his belly would fill with butterflies but he hadn't felt any of that during the entire time they've been together today. It strangely made him feel relieved.

'_I guess Abby isn't as attractive when she doesn't have her brain. Still, without my silly crush, this has been the first time I've been able to be near her without getting nervous so I'm glad.'_

That was when the hallucination of Kid Rot showed up next to him and whispered, _"And remember, the only reason she isn't getting nervous is because she can't remember all the horrible things we've tried to do to her and the ones she love. Wouldn't be great if she remained like this forever."_

When Chester let those words sink in, he felt guilt fill him up and he lowered his head in shame. This charade couldn't continue, Abby deserved to know the truth.

"Hey Chester." Abby's voice broke him out of his depressed stupor. "Do you want to get some ice cream?"

Chester blinked before plastering on a fake smile. "Sure. In fact, I can buy some for the both of us." Normally, Chester wouldn't waste money on trivialities but after witnessing Abby spending so much on amusement park rides, it became apparent she had no idea of the value of money.

"Really? That's like, so nice of you." Abby exclaimed. "Thanks."

* * *

Sometime later, Abby and Chester sat on a park bench in Ringworm Central Park, both holding ice cream cones. Abby had chocolate and tutti-frutti in hers while Chester got strawberry and lemon.

They sat there in silence for a while until Abby softly said, "Chester?"

Chester gazed at her. Her expression seemed almost solemn.

"I'm not sure I want to get my memories back." She said softly.

Chester almost gasped. Kid Rot showed up next to him, grinning wickedly. _"Ooh, that's just what we wanted."_

"But why?" Chester asked in an almost desperate tone.

"It's just that," She didn't look at him, she just kept her gaze at the melting ice cream in her hand, "the new me seems so different from the old me and I don't know if I like that."

Chester was puzzled at first but then he understood. Abby was afraid of growing up cause she didn't know what kind of person she would turn into. "Well, that's silly because the new you is amazing!"

This time, Abby just slightly glanced at him. "Really?"

"Absolutely! You're smart and funny, you're a great athlete. Not to mention how heroic and unselfish you are." Chester exclaimed. Since he wasn't in love with the current Abby, he felt he could express himself without restraints. "You-you're really kind, Abby. Even to people who doesn't deserve your kindness." Chester wasn't just thinking of himself when he said that, he was also thinking on Paige. Abby had been nice to her on so many occasions, even thou that blonde girl had done nothing but bully and humiliate her.

His words made Abby warm up from the inside and she smiled at him. "I am?"

Chester enthusiastically nodded.

"Am I popular in the future? Do I have many friends?" She asked energetically.

Chester hesitated to answer. It wasn't an easy question to answer. Abby didn't really associate with a lot of people, partly because she just wasn't very sociable and because some found her weird due to her fascination with gross stuff. Despite that, most people seemed to like her. From what Chester could gather, a lot of people admired her indomitable spirit and intelligence. Weather that made them her friends or not was difficult to say. Then there was him and his unrequired love for her.

He took a lick of his ice cream before smiling and he said, "You're more loved than you'll ever know."

Abby blinked and then quirked an eyebrow. "I don't have a boyfriend, right?"

"_Tell her you're her boyfriend and then kiss her on the mouth. Use your tongue!" _Kid Rot hollered but Chester decided to ignore him.

He thought for a second about mentioning Abby's former boyfriend Greg but decided it wasn't worth it. They ended their relationship a long time ago anyway. "No."

"Well, that's good. Boys are stupid anyway." Abby stated and took another bite of her ice cream.

"Hey, what about me?"

"Well," Abby tilted her head up and tapped her foot, "you're not like most boys. Actually, you're more of a girl."

Chester sighed. "Yeah, I get that a lot." He wasn't mad at her. It's not like she could have known his more feminine traits was one of the main reasons he got picked on at school.

Abby smiled as she leaned in to lick her ice cream. "I just wanted to say, you're the first friend I can even remember."

Chester gulped and not just due to the ice cream. Kid Rot meanwhile busted out laughing like a maniac. _"Did you hear that? Oh my god! She said you're the only friend she ever remember having when the only reason you're friends in the first place is because she doesn't remember us!"_

Chester's lower lip quivered and his eyes started to water. He felt such shame and self-hatred.

Kid Rot kept laughing uncontrollable, now rolling on the ground while clutching his abdomen. _"She can't remember how we tried to steal her away, destroy everyone she held dear and turn this world into a decaying wasteland!"_ The manic laughter continued.

"Abby," Chester said sternly, earning the girl's attention, "we are not friends. We can never be friends. There-there's too much bad blood between us."

Abby felt like she'd been hit by a brick. A lump started forming at the base of her throat. She was about to say something when another female voice interrupted her.

"Abby? Abby is that you? It is!" Paige Logan proclaimed as she strolled up to the couple, clutching the strap to the handbag over her shoulder. "I see you're finally gotten rid of that ponytail of yours. Good for you. I always said it looked like a fox had died on your head. Although those pigitails aren't doing you any favours, honey. They honestly just make you look even more like a child's dress up doll. Awe well, I guess there's only so much you can do to trim a monkey's butt." She glanced over at Chester. "Are you and Fester-Chester on a date? Oh, you two would be perfect for each other!"

Abby had no memories of this girl and had no idea of why she would start insulting her out of nowhere but she knew she had had enough.

She frowned, stood up, yanked out Paige's shirt collar and dumped her ice cream cone into the other girl's cleavage. She then pulled Paige's pink cap over her eyes, rendering the rich girl blind.

Paige started shrieking and running around like a headless chicken. "Iiiiiiiii! Get this ice cream out of my bra! It's so cold and sticky!" As she tried to pull her hat off her eyes, she lost her balance and fell headfirst into a bush.

Chester stared in bewilderment at the humiliated blonde before turning his attention at Abby. The redhead shot him a scornful glare, a glare that made him want to retreat into his figurative shell. She then ran away as fast as her legs could carry her.

"Abby, wait!" Chester called out but she was already too gone to hear. He let out a depressed sigh, not knowing what to do or what to say. However, then he noticed something. The park bench where Abby had been sitting was sprinkled with small white flakes. "Dandruff?"

* * *

Abby ran until she came to a patch of woods where she slumped down underneath a sycamore tree, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Stupid Chester." Her face contorted into an ugly frown, her fingers clutched a handful of grass before she angrily threw it in the air. "I just want things to go back to normal, to just be a kid again."

At that moment, Abby heard the flapping and buzzing of wings coming towards her. For a moment, Abby feared it was a swarm of bees or a murder of crows. Then, a beautiful woman, clad from head to toe in scabs ascended from the sky. Following her was five girls dressed in white, all shedding dandruff flakes wherever they flew.

It was the most beautiful sight Abby had ever seen yet she couldn't believe it. Her mouth was agape with astonishment. "You're the Scab Fairy."

"I'm pleased you've heard of me, little one." Scab Fairy mused and pulled out her Dandruff Catcher, inspecting it for a moment. "My Dandruff catcher led me to you but now I see you're a little bit too…big to fit into our merry little band. Sorry for bothering you."

Abby quickly got onto her feet. "Wait! I'm not really big. I'm actually a little kid. I just happen to look like a grown up."

"You are? You must have been drinking you're milk daily to get a physic like that." The former pageant queen chided sarcastically.

"No, I got a knock to my noggin but that doesn't matter." Abby cupped her hands over her chest. "I have so much I want to ask you. Are you truly the real Scab Fairy? Cause my brother told me you weren't real."

"You're brother's a fool." The mad woman snarled before shouting, "A fool!"

A huge grin grew across Abby's face. She practically jumped with happiness. "I knew it! You _are_ real. I have wanted to meet you my entire life."

The Scab Fairy blinked. "You have?"

Abby nodded. "Yeah. I used to wait up all night whenever I had a scab just to get a peek at you. I've read all your stories and researched every single tale there is about you. I know everything about your adventures and your magic."

Scab Fairy raised a curious eyebrow. "Oh, you do?"

"Yep. For instance, that staff you're holding is called the Scab Sceptre and those smaller fairies flying with you are Dandruff Fairies." Abby pointed out.

"My, my. You sure know a lot about me, little miss knowledgeable." The delusional woman mused.

"I do. I admire you so much. In fact," Abby lowered her head as she nervously stroked her hands against each other, "I've always wished to be a fairy."

Scab Fairy gasped in surprise but then, a devilish smirk formed on her face. "You do?"

Abby nodded. "Yep. You see, I don't want to grow up and have to deal with complicated emotions or relationships or responsibilities. I just want to be a kid, cause kids can always be themselves and fairies can be themselves even more."

"Well, luckily for you, I am recruiting new Dandruff Fairies at the moment and despite your height, I think you have a place among us." The Scab Fairy stated. "In fact, I think you have what it takes to be my Dandruff Queen."

Abby was taken aback, eyes glimmering with wonder. _'Dandruff Queen. That would make me Queen of the Dandruff Fairies and like a sister to Scab Fairy. My life would be like a fairy tale.' _She reached out her hand to the Scab Fairy who approached, reaching out to grasp her hand.

Suddenly, a dark ray hit the tree crown above them. The leaves moulted and fell onto the onlookers underneath. The Scab Fairy backed away in fear.

"Stay away from her, Helena!"

They turned their attention to the owner of that stern voice and saw Chester, standing on a hill with his fists ignited with dark energy. The Scab Fairy glared at him, gave a second look to the fallen foliage before resuming glaring. "Based on your affinity for death, I guess you're the demon from the forest."

Chester's eyes narrowed. _'As I suspected. She's so delusional, it doesn't matter if I face her incognito or not. That's one less thing to worry about.' _He thought before advancing on the fairies, his hands aimed at the scab clade woman. "That's right. I'm really good at destroying things but I really don't want to so I'll make a deal with you instead. Leave Abby and the little girls here with me and I'll let you escape just this once."

The Scab Fairy smirked as she ominously raised her arms. "Never thought I'd see the day when a fairy showed more guts than a demon." The Dandruff Fairies lined up behind her. "Charge my pretties!"

The brainwashed girls flew right at the Grossologist. One of them fired her wand at Chester but he jumped to the side, avoiding the blast. Another one fired at him but he sprinted forward before the blast could hit. Ellie went in close and manage to hit his arm with her wand. His arm was now glued to his body and his fingers stuck together by some sticky white substance. "Wet dandruff." Chester didn't need to exert much to rot the wet dandruff, leaving only some oily sludge on his clothes.

He stared up at the Dandruff Fairies and scowled. _'I have no way to apprehend these kids. The rational thing to do would be to simple grab Abby and run away but who knows how long it will take until we find them again. I need to capture them all, right here, right now.' _That was when he spotted the Scab Fairy hovering behind the younger fairies and a plan formed in his mind.

He started running right at her. The former pageant queen gasped, seeing the demon coming for her. The Dandruff Fairies kept firing at him but he dodged their blasts and kept heading for their leader. _'If only I can capture the Scab Fairy, I can force her to order them to surrender.' _He jumped up to grasp her but she simple flew a bit higher to get out of reach. It was okay thou, Chester had a backup plan.

He ran to the tree Abby sat under and leaped onto it, using his powers to dig dents into the bark in order to climb up the stem. He then jumped from branch to branch to get higher. Using his powers again, he ripped off a reasonable strong branch before leaping out of the tree like a cat would after a fleeing bird.

The Scab Fairy didn't even have time to react before the blonde boy bludgeoned her from behind with brutal force. They both crashed towards the ground but Chester at least braced himself for the impact by curling up and rolling onto the grass when he landed.

The Scab Fairy thou, hit the ground shoulder first and tumbled a couple of feet before coming to a stop. Her entire body ached, her hair was caked in dirt and lingered over her face. Despite the pain, she managed to rise onto her feet. However, the moment she got up, Chester pounced on her like a wild animal and pinned her to the ground.

Neither noticed her Dandruff Catcher dropping to the ground at that moment.

Chester held down her wrist as his knee grinded into her abdomen and pinning her left leg. Scab Fairy moved her left hand, trying to line up her Scab Sceptre for a good shoot. Chester noticed this and twisted her wrist. The insane woman hissed in pain and let go of her weapon.

Chester could hear the flapping wings of the Dandruff Fairies above him. They hovered around the two combatants, wanting to help their mistress but unaware of what to do so for the moment, they simple stayed close.

"Order your Dandruff Fairies to surrender!"

"Why would I do that?" She snarled back.

"Or else I'll _rot_ you!" Chester growled. To accentuate his threat, he activated his power thru his right arm and incinerated her scabby glove.

"You wouldn't dare!" The Scab Fairy's scowl deepened.

"Don't test me." Chester's tense brown eyes peered down into Helena's demented jade eyes for what seemed like an eternity, both refusing to budge.

Suddenly, Chester felt an intense pain in his side and was thrown off his opponent. He landed with a thud and huffed in pain as he looked up to see what it was that had hit him. To his dismay, he saw Abby standing between him and the Scab Fairy, her scowl and angry eyes bore holes into him.

"Abby?" Chester exclaimed confused.

"Get away from here, Chester! This doesn't concern you!" Abby practically screamed at him.

"Of course this concerns me." Chester said as he got off the ground. "That woman kidnapped all these children and now she's gonna take you away too."

"She's not taking me. I'm going with her cause I want to." Abby replied in a stern tone as the Scab Fairy rose onto her feet, a wicked grin gracing her face.

"You can't be serious?" Chester gasped.

"I am. I've loved the Scab Fairy as far as I can remember. And why do you care anyway? You're not my friend, remember?" Abby's voice dripped with venom.

Chester sighed in a rueful manner. "Regardless what I am to you, I won't let you leave with her." He started walking towards her.

"And I won't let you take away my childhood dream!" Abby roared before running at the boy who braced himself for combat.

Abby tried to punch him but Chester grabbed her fist and redirected it before letting go, causing Abby to stumble behind him. Abby turned around and attacked him again. Chester grabbed her by the wrist this time. "Sorry for this." He hauled her over his shoulder and slammed her into the ground.

Abby grunted in pain as she gazed up at him. "How are you so good at fighting?"

"My grandpa's a former cop, he taught me a thing or two about self-defence. You might also have taught me a few tricks." Chester replied and bowed down (weather it was to pin her or offer her a helping hand, Abby wasn't sure).

The redhead flipped around and kicked him in the chest, causing him to stumble backwards. Abby then got onto her feet and charged at him. She tried to kick him in the chest again but Chester blocked her leg so Abby instead roundhouse kicked him in his side.

Chester stumbled awkwardly while clutching the area Abby's kick had landed. "Question is, how can _you_ be so good at fighting?"

"Sheer willpower I guess." Abby replied and tried punching Chester in the face but he dodged at the last second.

'_It's not willpower, its muscle memory.' _Chester thought. _'Abby's mind may not remember any of her combat training but her body does. It's an in-learned instinct which means she doesn't need to think before she acts.' _

Abby threw another punch at Chester's head and again he managed to dodge it but when doing so he got into position for Abby's knee which collided with his stomach. Chester fell onto his knees, clutching his stomach. Abby then Karate chopped the blonde boy in the back of the head. Chester lost consciousness and collapsed onto the ground.

The Scab Fairy laughed maniacally as she took to the sky. "Good, very good. You certainly showed your female prowess. Tell me, what are thy name?"

Abby turned to face her. "Abigail."

"Abigail, with your fighting spirit and vast knowledge of my legends, you'll be perfect for our ranks." The Scab Fairy stated. Ellie and one other Dandruff Fairy grabbed Abby by her arms and lifted her into the air. "Come, my pretties. Let's return to our land of wonder." The former pageant queen proclaimed before taking off, her Dandruff Fairies following close behind.

Abby gave one last glance at Chester as she was carried away. She felt sad for beating him up and even sadder that he couldn't accept her as a friend. Still, there was no point regretting it. She decided she had to look ahead with her childhood hero.

Chester awoke just in time to see the flying girls disappear over the horizon. He rose up with a stain of dirt smeared his forehead. He stared in shock at his friend being carried away. He had no idea what to do and in truth he felt like there was nothing he could do. He hung his head in defeat but when he did, he saw something white and shiny in the grass.

He went over and picked it up. It was Scab Fairy's Dandruff Catcher. _'With this, we might be able to find her again.' _There was a glimmer of hope in his brown eyes.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**When I first started this story, it seemed to take forever for me to finish a chapter but now it seems I finish writing these at a pretty fast pace. Now there's only one and a half chapters before the story is completed. Maybe I'm not quite as precise in my writing as I used to or maybe it's just that the characters got such good chemistry that their scenes just kind of write themselves. The most difficult challenge for me when writing this specific story has been with dealing with all the shifts in tone. Characters go from happy to sad rather quickly and trying my best to make it seem natural. I'm not certain if I managed that or not, I still feel like the characters have bipolar disorder at times.**

**The scene where Abby & Chester had a chilli eating competition was originally supposed to be in another Grossology story I had planned, titled **_**Bon Appetit**_**. In that story, the Grossologists would combat a new villain called **_**Chef LaVomir**_**, an evil cook who specializes in weird, exotic food like balut and haggis and such. Sadly, I scrapped the story cause couldn't get it to work and I wanted to focus on more interesting ideas I had.**

**One thing that was revealed in this chapter which I honestly planned to reveal later into the series is the fact that Chester has been receiving martial arts training from his grandpa. I imagine that since Chester wants to improve himself more than anyone else, he would ask his grandpa for some lessons and maybe his grandpa could get him in contact with a trainer or something. His grandpa is a former cop so it make sense for him to know such stuff.  
Another reason I did this is so the different Grossologists can have different fighting styles that makes them unique. Abby's fighting style is a blend of all kinds of martial arts (karate and kickboxing amoung other) while Naomi's is more similar to Capoeira. Chester's will be kind of a mix between judo and akido. **

**As always I would appreciate any feedback you readers can give me. Tell me what you people like and dislike about my story.**

_**Goodbye for now, Grossologists!**_


	6. Chapter 5

**Dance of the Dandruff Fairies**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

The GRS-2's engines boomed as it jetted above the skyscrapers of Ringworm City. "Man, I can't believe Abby got dandruff out nowhere and at this time no less." Andy exclaimed.

"It wasn't out of nowhere, Andy. It was that damn dandruff mite that bit her yesterday." Ty replied from the pilot seat next to him before fisting his forehead in frustration. "Damn, I can't believe I didn't consider this could happen." He then turned on the ship's com-radio. "Hey LabRat, are you sure you can find her with that gadget that Chester got of the Scab Fairy?"

* * *

"_That maniac said it could only detect dandruff within a miles radius. What if Abby's out of range?" _The Archer brother's voice came thru the Gaglab's radio.

LabRat and Hermes were at their usual positions, one in front of the monitor and the other atop the former's shoulder. The Dandruff Catcher had been pried open and wired to cables leading to the lab's main computer. "Trust me." LabRat retorted with a confident smirk. "Helena may have invented this thing but she didn't have access to satellites like we do. With our weather satellite I've enhanced this thing ten times over. I'll find her before you can blink."

* * *

"I blinked. Found anything yet?" Ty asked, sarcastic yet dead serious.

"_Don't be hasty. Plenty of people in the city got dandruff. Just wait till I find something that sticks out."_ LabRat's replied over the GRS-2's radio.

Ty grunted in annoyance.

"Um question, if we don't know where she is yet, then why did we get into the ship?" Andy asked puzzled. The white clade Grossologist sat next to Ty while Naomi and Chester sat in the seats behind them.

"So we won't waste time waiting for LabRat's results. Besides, I got a theory where Scab Fairy's may have taken her." Ty answered.

"But aren't we wasting fuel like this?"

"Andy, I'm a bit too worried about my sister right now to care about the bureau's fuel budget!" Ty snapped at him.

Andy was taken aback. It was rare even for him to see his best friend so angry. "I'm sorry, Ty."

The orange clade Grossologist sighed. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you. It's not _your_ fault Abby was taken." Upon saying that, Ty turned his attention at Chester, shooting him a death glare.

Chester noticed and flinched. "What?"

"How could you have let my sister, my _brain damaged _sister convince you to take her out on a date?"

"It wasn't a date. It was more like I was babysitting." Chester tried to excuse himself.

"Whatever you like to call it, you should have called me." Ty stated.

"I know, I know. This is all my fault which is why I wanted to come with you this time. It's just," He let out a depressed sigh, "It was just so fun hanging out with her without the entire Kid Rot thing putting a damper on everything."

That caused everyone to look at him. "What does that mean?" Naomi asked.

The Kid Rot hallucination appeared next to him. _"Oh, is this finally it? Will Chester finally tell everyone he's been seeing me in secret? Whoops, I unintentionally made that more suggestive than I intended."_

"It's just that," Chester sighed and nervously scratched his hand, "Kid Rot did so many awful things to Abby. He kidnapped her, tried to force himself on her, not to mention what he tried to do to the rest of the world. After all that, it's difficult for people to dissociate me from Kid Rot, especially Abby."

The others stared at him like he'd grown a second head.

"Who said that?" Naomi asked.

"Who said that?" Andy asked.

"Who said that?" Ty asked.

"Well," Chester blinked puzzled, "no one but there's always this strange tension between us whenever we're together so I assumed I was making her uncomfortable."

Ty rolled his eyes before resuming to look out the windshield while Naomi and Andy exchanged looks before turning their attention back to Chester. "Chester, does it occur to you that you may feel tense because you're not used to social interactions and may be scared of embarrassing yourself?" Naomi asked.

"Or maybe cause you got some underlying feelings for Abby?" Andy added.

"Or perhaps you still feel guilty for something that wasn't even your fault?" Ty bellowed over his shoulder.

"Um, huh?" Their words hit Chester like several tones of bricks. It made him contemplate his behaviour. What Naomi said was true, until he met the Grossologists he had never truly gotten to socialize with anyone. Whenever he was around them, he was very self-conscious, always afraid of doing or saying something wrong, especially when it came to Abby.

What Andy said was also true, he was unmistakably in love with her. In fact, he was certain everyone else was aware of it as well, including Abby. He thought back to other girls he'd been attracted too and how nervous they made him feel so it would make sense if he felt even tenser around Abby, the only girl who have let him get close.

Still, what Ty said was definitely not true. "You're wrong, Ty. Kid Rot was my fault. After all, I was the one who made him and his desires were…" He couldn't continue. His words died in his throat.

Ty swirled around on his seat so he could face his black clade teammate. "Look Chester, I've been thru the same thing as you. I was turned into Far-Ty, a monster made up of my darkest desires. To have all my flaws blown up so much I could never deny them was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. Still, despite everything I did against her, Abby forgave me without question and has never held it against me."

Chester felt somewhat ashamed. He sometimes forgot Ty had been thru some of the same kind of torment as he has. "It's different with you. You're her brother."

"And you're her friend so stop worrying about the past and act like it!" Ty's laud proclamation made everyone fall deathly silent.

"_Hey, guys!" _Luckily, LabRat's radio voice cut thru the tension.

Ty swirled his seat back into position. "What's the word, LabRat?"

"_I'm pretty certain I found them. They're back in Snake Peel Valley."_

"I knew it! They're back in the mine, right?" Ty exclaimed.

"_No, it's another spot in the area. A lake that dried up a couple of years ago. My guess is that there's some kind of underground cave there. _LabRat explained._ "You have to get there quickly." _

Ty wasted no time putting the GRS-2 into high gear and it jetted at full speed towards Snake Peel Valley.

* * *

Abby sat on a stone inside a dark, cornered-off section of the underground cave the Scab Fairy had taken her too.

The first thing the Scab Fairy had done when they got there was to ask her to change into something more appropriate which was why she now wore a long, white dress just like the Dandruff Fairies.

"So, how long have you guys been Dandruff Fairies?" Abby asked. All five of the Dandruff Fairies was in the hollow with her. Some crouched upon perches while others sat on rocks. Their eyes were wide open, giving them an almost owl like appearance.

"Okay, does any of you have any hobbies besides dandruff?" Abby started to get nervous. None of Dandruff Fairies talked. On occasion she would spot one jerking their heads or twitching their fingers. It was like their minds were awake but trapped inside bodies that couldn't express their thoughts. "You girls don't say much, huh?"

"Talk they do not but do not worry." The Scab Fairy mused as she stepped into the hollow. "Once your transformation is done, they'll do anything you ask of them."

Abby stood up but her head remained lowered. "I-I'm starting to have second thoughts about all this. Will I also be mute?"

The Scab Fairy tilted her head with a smile before pulling the young redhead into a comforting hug. "Do not worry little one. Everything will be fine. You'll always have me to talk to."

"Will I see mom and dad again?" Abby asked, nuzzling against the taller woman's arm.

"You might. Come, follow me." The Scab Fairy took Abby by the hand and started leading her out of the hollow. She glanced over her shoulder at the Dandruff Fairies. "Come my Dandruff Fairies. Follow your new leader." With those orders, the Dandruff Fairies came to life with flapping wings and started to mindlessly follow the taller ones.

* * *

The mad woman led them into a more lit up part of the cave. When she stepped into the light, Abby practically gasped at what she saw. It was a huge, peculiar machine. It looked like a colossal shower or one of does industrial magnets used at the junkyard with a huge showerhead hanging from a crane which attached to a central control board.

"This is the _Dandruffinator_!" The Scab Fairy proclaimed. She then raised her hand and affectionately stroked the cheek of one of the Dandruff Fairies. "Its thanks to it, I've been able to transform these unwanted children into my darling Dandruff Fairies." The Scab Fairy took Abby by the hand again and led her to a wooden chair positioned underneath the machine's showerhead. "Now, sit down here and let me strap you in."

Abby sceptically eyed the leather straps hanging from the chair's legs and armrests. She then shot the Scab Fairy an angry glare. "Why do you need to do that for?"

The Scab Fairy kept grinning and patted the girl's hair. "Don't you trust me, little one?"

Abby swatted the hand off her. "I don't trust anyone that wants to tie me up. I'm young, not stupid."

The Scab Fairy placed her hands on Abby's shoulder and crouched down so the two were at eyelevel with one another. "The straps are simple there so you won't fall cause once your wings starts growing they may push you off the chair." This was a lie of course. None of the Dandruff Fairies had actual wings. They were machines attached to their backs just like with Scab Fairy. No, the leather straps where there in case Abby got cold feet at the last minute, which considering her current attitude seemed likely.

"That makes sense, I guess." Abby mumbled and hesitantly sat down in the chair. The Scab Fairy then started strapping her in, starting with her ankles and finishing with her wrists. She then strutted over the Dandruffinator's control board.

She hit a button which cast a spotlight on Abby. "Now, listen up. I'm going to explain how this wonderful device works." The Scab Fairy stated. "The Dandruffinator generates magical energy which is then radiated thru the nozzle above you, like a magical shower. The dandruff in your hair will work as lightning rods, leading the energy thru your hair and into your body. That's when it transforms you into a beautiful Dandruff Fairy."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Abby trembled. "You sure this is safe?"

"Trust me child, it's perfectly safe." The Scab Fairy mused. "I'm as big a friend to children as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny."

"Are those two real as well? Cause my brother said they're not."

"They're real, all real! Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Sandman, leprechauns, witches, it's all real!" The Scab Fairy ranted like a complete maniac, drool seeping from her lips. "Those damn goblins locked me up in a dungeon where they tried to convince me that I wasn't the magnificent Scab Fairy but a failed pageant contester who gave up a promising academic career only to be undone by a small little scab on her shoulder!" She punctuated her tirade by punching the control board and panted from emotional exhaustion.

"You seem angry, miss Scab Fairy. It's sort of scary." Abby said.

"I AM NOT ANGRY!" The maniac screamed at her. "I AM A BEING OF PURITY AND BEAUTY! I DO NOT GET ANGRY!"

At that moment, they started feeling tremors going thru the ground. Dust and pebbles fell from the ceiling. "What is happening? Is it an earthquake or is a troll stomping on my house?" The Scab Fairy questioned. They then heard the roaring sound of machine-driven drill from behind the cave wall.

Suddenly, the GRS-2 tore thru the rock hard cave wall with a massive drill mounted at its front.

"LabRat, why didn't you tell me the GRS-2 had a drill-mode earlier?" Ty complained inside the GRS-2.

"_Because it was so obvious I thought you must have a reason not to use it but apparently you were just a complete ignoramus." _LabRat's voice echoed over the radio.

"Can we take this later?" Chester barked irritated as he opened the ship's hatchet. The Grossologists rushed outside and Ty, Andy and Chester all drew their goopshooters, except their designs were slightly different than usual. They all got green nozzles at the end of their barrels.

"Goblins!" The Scab Fairy gasped. "Dandruff Fairies, attack!" On command, the flying girls rushed at the intruders. Ellie fired her wand at the Grossologists who all scattered.

Ty got into a crouching position, took aim at the brunet and fired but instead of goo, the goopshooter fired a net. The net wrapped itself around Ellie's body and brought her to the ground, safe but immobile. Ty smirked victoriously. "This time we came prepared."

One Dandruff Fairy circled above Andy. She swooped down on the white clade Grossologists and blasted his neck with her wand. "Yikes, that still itches." Andy exclaimed irritated. The Dandruff Fairy swooped down again but this time Andy turned around and fired his net shooter, subduing the girl.

The Scab Fairy gasped upon seeing her Dandruff Fairies being captured, one after one. In desperation, she grabbed a lever and brought it down. The Dandruffinator started humming before its overhead began bombarding Abby with waves of white light. The redheaded girl looked around confused. She started to feel a bit dizzy.

"You step away from that thing!" Naomi hollered as she leaped at the Scab Fairy and jabbed her Gagstaff into the woman's abdomen. The Scab Fairy vomited before running away, clutching her aching stomach. Naomi glanced at the control board. Her first instinct was to smash it but decided not to do anything rash. "Andy, figure this out. I'll go after Scab Fairy." Naomi called out to her teammate before running after their enemy.

With the aid of his hoover boats, Andy landed by the control board. He eyed its various buttons, levers and meters before shrugging. "This doesn't seem too complicated."

At same time, Naomi had caught up with the Scab Fairy and backed her into a corner. She ran at her, trying to thrust the Gagstaff at her but Helena took to the air before she could be hit.

"Try to pick these, goblin!" The Scab Fairy fired her Scab Sceptre at her opponent and managed to encapsulate Naomi's legs in a thick layer of scabs. The flying woman snickered.

Naomi scowled as she pressed her Gagstaff against the hard scab layer and thumbed the button. The Gagstaff's static shockwaves shattered the scab cocoon into pieces. The Scab Fairy gasped in fear. Naomi then jumped at the wall and launched herself at her flying target. She smashed her weapon against Scab Fairy's back, breaking one of wings.

The Scab Fairy hit the ground hard, scrapping up one of her arms. "Can't believe I fell for the same trick twice." She then looked up at the scowling Naomi.

"Had enough yet?"

Meanwhile, the remaining Dandruff Fairies had surrounded Ty and Chester. The orange clade Grossologist took aim and fired at one of them but she dodged it and fired her want at him. His web shooter got coated in the familiar white sludge. "Oh muck, wet dandruff again. This is getting annoying!"

"I got it." Chester exclaimed and touched his teammate's web shooter. The wet dandruff practically melted off the weapon.

Ty smirked at his teammate. "And you said you couldn't control your powers." He took new aim at the Dandruff Fairy and fired. Not only did the net capture the girl this time but it got stuck to a stalactite, leaving her hanging like in a pouch.

Back with Andy, the chubby teenager had more or less figured out how the Dandruffinator's control board worked. He pushed a button and pulled a lever. The strange machine went silent and the white lights that had illuminated Abby ceased. "Guys, I managed to shut down the brainwashing machine."

Upon hearing that, Chester quickly fired at the nearest Dandruff Fairy and got in a direct hit. Before the bundled up girl had even reached the ground, the blonde boy rushed to his tied up friend. "Abby, Abby? Are you alright?"

Abby's drowsy eyes blinked a couple of times, her vision was blurry. When she recognised the blonde boy in front of her, her reaction wasn't quiet the warm welcome he had hoped for. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't worry, I get you out of this chair." He touched the leather straps around her wrists and they decomposed. He then crouched down and did the same thing to the ones around her ankles.

"Why don't you just leave me here?" Abby asked sullenly. "No one wants me out there. They only want new Abby, not little old me."

Chester smiled warmly and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. This made the girl look straight up into his eyes. Chester was usually troubled by other peoples' stares but he kept his gaze on her. "Listen to me, Abby. We're in the same boat, you and me. I'm also in the stage of growing up. We all are. And you're right, it can be really scary but the thing is, none of us can ever become a completely different person. All we can do is like ourselves and be the best us we can be." Chester smiled sadly for a moment. "I've never been able to like myself so it's difficult for me to believe anyone else can but if you want to be my friend then I'll full heartedly accept it. I promise, from now on I'll be the best friend I can be." He tilted his head and gave her his best chibi smile. "So, what do you say?" He took her by the wrists and gently pulled her onto her feet. "You want to grow up together?"

Abby blinked, looking positively entranced.

Ty was chasing after the last Dandruff Fairy. She was flying higher and more erratically than the other ones which made her harder to catch. Ty fired two times but only hit the ceiling. He stopped running and took new aim, waited impatiently till she got into his figurative crosshairs and fired. It was a direct hit. However, it wasn't until she started falling that Ty realized his mistake. A sharp stalagmite stuck up straight underneath her. Without hesitating, Ty rushed and jumped over the stalagmite, catching the falling girl in his arm.

He couldn't help but smile at the bundled up girl in his arms, she was cute despite her pale eyes. "And makes all of them."

Meanwhile, Naomi had managed to force the Scab Fairy into the open. She couldn't fly anymore and her left arm had been lamed. All she could do was protect herself with her Scab Sceptre. She fired it at her opponent but Naomi blocked it with her staff, its vibrations shattering the pink crusts.

"Give up, Helena. I don't want to hurt you more than I already have." Naomi stated. The Scab Fairy growled in frustration, clutching her injured arm.

At that moment, Abby stepped in-between the two combatants. Naomi took a step back upon seeing the taller girl's frightening glare.

Feeling like the there was still a chance to turn the tides, the Scab Fairy grinned and straightened her posture. "Good my Dandruff Queen. Give this naughty little goblin the spanking she deserves and then let's leave like trees."

Suddenly, Abby spun around and roundhouse kicked the Scab Fairy in the face. The former pageant queen hit the ground with a thud, blood streaming from her nose. Abby then walked over to her and picked up the Scab Sceptre. "You were nothing but a knock off tooth fairy anyway." She lectured before breaking the sceptre over her knee.

The Scab Fairy stared with mouth agape at her last hope shattering. Her expression then turn from stunned to furious. "Never compare me to that wretch!" She scrambled onto her feet and tried to attack the redhead when she was wrapped up and brought down by a net.

Abby looked to where the net had come from and saw her brother with his web shooter on his left arm while cradling a little girl in his right. He shot her a friendly smile which she gladly returned, thankful he was happy to see her. She couldn't believe she'd been so childish to have almost abandoned her family. _'Guess I do need to grow up.'_

Ty came up to them. "Seems it's all over."

"Not yet. We still need to undo the children's brainwashing." Chester reminded them in a concerned tone.

Ty held up the little girl he carried, examining her from front to back. "I think we can remove the wings quite easily but I'm not sure what to do about the brainwashing thou."

"Luckily I do." Andy proclaimed from behind the control board and proceeded with unfolding a diagram of the Dandruffinator. "I've read thru some of the Scab Fairy's schematics and I think I can undo the brainwashing with the Dandruffinator."

"I guess the Dandruffinator is that thing." Ty exclaimed and pointed at the strange machine.

Andy nodded. "Now, if I understand these notes correctly, the brainwashing is almost like a video editing software where you cut a film reel and slice in a new one. We simple rewind it to where the last reel ended."

The Grossologists exchanged confident smiles. This seemed like it could work.

* * *

_A few minutes later…_

The Grossologists had removed the wings of the five little girls and gathered them in a circle around the chair underneath the Dandruffinator. "Alright," Andy exclaimed, "now I can hopefully get these kids back to normal."

"Hopefully?" Ty gasped, placing the last of the kids on the floor. "Andy, you better know what you're doing! We are talking about tampering with these children's brains, you know?"

"Um, yeah. I'm certain I can do this. No problem." The chubby boy nervously reassured. He pushed up a lever and rotated a knob counter clockwise. The Dandruffinator started humming and started illuminating the five girls with waves of light. The Grossologists all stood around them, hoping and praying this would get the children back to normal.

Ellie's large, pale eyes shut close. She blinked a few time and her dark green irises returned to her. She groaned, feeling dizzy. "What happened?"

One after another, the rest of the girls woke up from their trance. "Where am I?" One of them asked, looking around.

"Lisa? Ellie? What are you doing here? Wait this isn't my room?" Another one asked puzzled.

One of them started crying. "I want my mom!"

Ty approached them. "Its fine, everything will be okay. Listen, you girls have been missing for a couple of days but me and my colleagues here," He gestured to the other Grossologists, "we'll bring you all back to your families. Okay?"

The girls seemed to calm down a little. Some of them nodded in response.

Naomi sighed in relief before smiling. "Seems like everything's over."

"Not yet! We still need to get Abby back to normal." Andy exclaimed.

Chester and Abby both blinked. "What do you mean?" The blonde boy asked confused. "Abby lost her memories due to head trauma, not brainwashing."

"True but I think this machine would work for that as well. We can rewind it just like with the girls."

Abby lowered her head. "I don't know if I want to."

"Why?" Chester asked softly and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Are you still scared of growing up?"

"No, it's just everything I've experienced these two days and the things you and Ty have thought me. I don't want to forget any of it."

"It okay. We can tell you all about it afterwards." Chester offered.

"Wouldn't be the same thou."

"I think I can fix that too." Andy proclaimed.

"Is there anything you can't do?" Naomi chuckled, although the praise was genuine.

Andy smirked as he started explaining, feeling proud of himself. "Remember what I said about brainwashing being like video editing? Well, what if we can get her mind to go into a loop? Rewinding it and fastplaying it to the present. It may even work better than simple rewinding it."

Abby turned to her brother and her friend with a smile. "I say it's worth a try."

After a few minutes of Andy preparing the Dandruffinator, Abby sat down in the chair underneath the machine's showerhead. Andy pushed a lever forward, twisted a knob an entire lap and pushed a few buttons. The Dandruffinator came to life once again with the humming noises and the white light that washed over Abby. She closed her eyes as she waited for Andy's to give the sign.

Andy checked his watch (his GrossWatch that is). After about three minutes, he turned off the machine by pulling down the lever and Abby's spotlight blacked out. Ty and Chester stepped closer, anticipating her awakening.

With a smile, Abby opened her eyes. Their cerulean irises flickered with a familiar flare.

* * *

**Author's Note.**

**Alright, now all that remains is the epilogue and **_**Dance of the Dandruff Fairies **_**will be complete and we can move on to other things. **

**Sorry for the clunky exposition at the start of the chapter. I was afraid not everyone would get the connection between the dandruff mite and Abby's dandruff so I shoved it in at the last second. Should have planned that better. Sorry.**

**I'm happy I was able to give Naomi something to do this chapter although I'm a bit afraid of making her too badass, she's still a rookie after all. Still, even by Grossology standards the Scab Fairy is a c-lister so taking her down isn't that big a deal.**

**For all the shipping moments between Abby & Chester I **_**accidentally**_** squeezed into this story, this chapter also had some shipping moments with Ty & Chester. You're welcome Tyster shippers! Abbster may be my OTP but I gladly throw a bone to other ships every now and then.**

**As always, I'll appreciate any feedback you can give me. Tell me everything you liked and disliked about this chapter and I'll see if I can improve in the future.**

_**Till we meet again, Grossologists!**_


	7. Epilogue

**Dance of the Dandruff Fairies**

* * *

**Epilogue:**

Today was Abby birthday and the Archer family's backyard was teeming with more life than it had in years. A bouncing castle had been erected on the lawn and all the little girls that the Scab Fairy had kidnapped (including Yu) were taking turns playing in it. Currently, it was Ellie and Yu who were bouncing as they held hands and smiled at each other.

After the Scab Fairy incident, Chester explained to Yu that dandruff was not contagious and as her friend she should trust Ellie to not want her any harm. Afterwards, the two forgave one another and became friends again.

Abby meanwhile, sat atop the porch and blissfully watched the children enjoying themselves. She had of course offered to help with decorating and setting the tables but everyone assured her she should instead try to enjoy her birthday instead.

She glanced over at the others set a big table on the lawn. Not only was her parents and her friends from the bureau there but some of the children's parents were there as well. The toilet shaped cookie jar had been placed in the middle of the table and Abby didn't miss Andy trying to steal a brownie from it, only for Petunia to swat his hand away and disapprovingly waving her finger at him.

With the coveted cookie toilet safe, Abby resumed watching over the girls when she spotted Chester coming towards her, holding a paper bag in his left hand. "Happy birthday, Abby." He cheerfully greeted.

Abby rose onto her feet. "Thank you, Chester. I'm happy you could make it."

"Um, I-I'm sorry." Chester nervously rubbed the back of his head. "I've never been to a birthday part before. I don't really know what the tradition entails."

"Well, some people sing the birthday song for the celebrated."

"Um, okay." Chester said hesitantly before he started sing. "Happy birthday, happy Abby. We celebrate the day when you were born, you're the awesome gal that we adore. Um, Happy birthday, happy Abby..."

Abby started laughing.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember the lyrics." Chester exclaimed bashfully, cheeks blushing.

"No, no, that was great. I was getting sick of the traditional one anyway." She gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder. "You got a great singing voice there."

Chester's smile spread from ear to ear as he stared into Abby's beautiful blue eyes. The butterflies in his stomach were back. With Abby's personality and intelligence back, so was his feelings for her. It was a bit exasperating but it felt good.

He fidgeted when he realized he'd been staring at her. "Oh, right. I-I almost forgot, I didn't know what to give you so I got you two birthday presents." He said as he started rummaging thru the paper bag.

"Two?" Abby blinked. "Chester you didn't need to give me anything. I know you're hurting for money."

"Yeah, but I realized the gift I wanted to give you may have more worth to me than for you so I decided to give you a second one just in case. Something I know you like." Chester explained and handed her a packet wrapped in newspaper.

Abby gave the packet a perplexed look before tearing it up. It was a pair of boxing gloves. "Chester, I love them!"

Chester smiled. "Sorry that they're a bit worn down. I bought them at the second-hand store."

Abby put on the boxing gloves and threw a couple of jabs at the air. "They suit me perfectly. Thank you so much. Now, what's the second gift?"

"Well, take the gloves off first. It's a bit delicate." Chester instructed and Abby did as he said. Chester then took the second gift out of the bag.

It was his scarlet star plant.

Abby's eyes dilated. She was rendered nearly speechless. "Chester?"

"It's my scarlet star plant. Me and my grandma have cultivated it for years and now I want you to have it."

"Chester, I-I can't. It's too much." Abby shook her head, feeling a strange bang in her heart. No one had ever given her something that was this special to them.

"Abby, I want you to have this cause you're the first friend I've ever had," Chester proclaimed, head lowered due to insecurity, "which is why I want to give you something important so you believe me when I tell you, you mean a lot to me."

Abby held the potted plant in her hands as she felt a tear form at the corner of her eye. She wiped it off with her sleeve. "Damn, must have gotten some pollen in my eye or something."

The door behind them opened and Ty stepped out onto the porch. "Oh, hey Chester. Am I interrupting something?"

The two simple shook their heads at his question.

"Alright then. Is it okay if I borrow my sister for a moment?" Ty chided.

"Okay." Chester was about to leave when Abby blocked him with the flower he'd given her.

"Chester, can you be a dear and take this to my room? Find a good place for it."

Chester nodded courteously as he took the plant and headed indoors.

Ty smiled at his sister before taking a seat on the porch. Abby sat down next to him. "It sure was nice of you to invite all the kids."

Abby scoffed. "Well, mom had already rented the bouncing castle so I felt someone should get some use out of it. Besides, after what those kids have gone thru, I think they all need a bit of fun."

Ty huffed, somewhat amused. "The Director called this _"A bureau sanctioned therapy session"_. He even took credit for the darn birthday party."

"Well, a bit of stress relief can definitely be therapeutic." Abby stated, eyeing Ellie and Yu as the two playfully chased after each other.

Ty was quiet for a moment before speaking. "I heard you dropped out of the student council _and_ the school's baseball team. Why would you do that?"

Abby leaned back and gazed at the sky. "Well, after everything that has happened, I feel I want to take a break from my responsibilities for a little while and reconsider what I want to do with myself."

Ty smiled at her. "I see. I guess you're not going to be the same up-tight, no-nonsense Abby as you used to be, huh."

Abby smirked at her brother. "Now don't get too comfortable." She gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder. "I'm always going to be the big sister keeping an eye on you and the rest of you crazy geeks but from now on, expect me to do more of what I want to do rather than what I have to do. For example…" Abby got up and ran to the bouncing castle. The other girls laughed as she joined them inside the inflatable structure.

Ty smiled blissfully as he watched his sister joyously bounce against the elastic floor, raising her arms as she reached new heights, finally able to grow up with her inner child released.

* * *

_ENDING SONG: DANCE OF THE WILD FAERIES - GARY STADLER_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**It's done! Episode 7 of Season 3, **_**Dance of the Dandruff Fairies**_** is finally complete and I can lay it to my small pile of finished projects.**

**Now, I know what all of you are thinking. **_**Where were the Society of Drossology in all of this?**_** (Just kidding, no one cares about that). While the Society of Drossology will be the most important antagonists going forward, they will not be part of every plot nor will all villains be part of their faction. Villain team-ups is a gimmick I try to handle carefully since not all villains will have compatible goals. I did team-up Kid Rot with Fartor earlier since I thought their abilities and motivations somewhat complimented each other (even then, they ended up betraying each other).**

**I wanted to use this story to further the development of Abby and Chester as they leave old baggage in the past and move forward as well as explore the themes of growing up.  
Abby probably grew the most in this story as she now no longer feel the need to be Ty's perfect role model and is free to be herself. I don't think Chester is anywhere near getting over his past trauma but he's taken his first steps towards recovery.**

**Hope you all enjoyed this story. As always I'd appreciate any feedback you can give me. What worked and what didn't work, let me know.**

_**Arrivederci, Grossologists! **_


End file.
